Opium and Opium Appetite with Notices of Alcoholic Beverages, Cannabis Indica, Tobacco, Coca, Tea and Coffee

Table of contents :
Front Cover
Opium, Synonyms
Coffee and Tea in the Contrast : 358
Laudanum, Coquemar 16, 17 The “Circulatores”
Pike's Peak
Properties, Potencies
Methods of Opium-Stimulation
The Physiology of Opium
The Pathology of Opium
Contour, Styria
Caravans, the Plains
Elimination, Sandys
Deductions

Citation preview

OPIUM AND

THE OPIUM -APPETITE : WITH

PATHOLOGIC RELATIONS UNIVERSE

R

THEIR HYGEIENIC ASPECTS ARIFFE LA L NI

RA

TOBACCO AND COCA, AND TEA AND COFFEE, IN

TB

NOTICES OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES, CANNABIS INDICA , PATHOLOGIC RELATION

4 JAN 82 BY

MU + ORXUSSEEUYM FORD

ALONZO CALKINS, M . D .

“ Hinc via Tartarei quæ fert Acherontis ad undas.” — Æneid, vi. “ Lasciate ogniSperanza , voi che entrate All ye that enter here, leave Hope behind .” INSCRIPTION OVER THE GATE OF DANTE ' S INFERNO .

PHILADELPHIA :

J. B . LIPPINCOTT & CO . 1871.

Entered according to Act ofCongress,in the year 1870, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & Co., In the Office of the Librarian ofCongress, atWashington.

“ Densemus ordines." - LIVY .

TO THE THREE FACULTIES, OF LAW , THEOLOGY, AND MEDICINE ; . WHOSE REPRESENTATIVES, THROUGH A CONSENTANEOUS ENERGY OF CO -OPERATION, ARE ABLE TO EXERT SO POTENTIAL A SWAY

OVER PUBLIC OPINION IN ITS YET PLASTIC STAGE AS CONCERNING ALL PROBLEMS IN ETHICS AND SOCIOLOGY,

THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED , BY THEIR COLLABORATOR AND FELLOW -SERVANT, New YORK , September 1, 1870.

ALONZO CALKINS.

SYLLABUS OF TOPICS AND CASES

BY CHAPTERS AND SECTIONS. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . Page 19 1. Fidelity to history

14. Rule of selection

2. Unique cases 3. Morbid appetite

1 6 . Obligations.

5. Authorities, Numbers

I. The Poppy — its History, Mythic and Traditional - 23 4. Egypt, Claudian 1. Mythology 2 . Medical botanists

Homer's Nepenthes 5. Pliny and Galen , Bandji

3. Mithridaticum

Theriaca, Philonium

6 . The Scriptures.

II. Commerce in Opium - Lands of the Orient . . 28 | 9. Fou-Chow , Singapore

1. Ferishta, Chardin 2, 3. China, Formosa 4, 5. Imports, Population 6 . Contraband traffic 7. Home-produce

8. Rajpootana, Tartary

10, 11. Ratios, E . India Co.

12, 13. Artillery, G . Britain 14, 15 . Imports , Population

16. Lancashire 17. Operatives, Taylor.

III. The Record for the United States . . . . . 36 1. India the storehouse

7. Epoch of 1842

2, 3. Imports, Population

8. N . Y . Apothecaries

4. Ratios, Prices 5 . Illicit trade

6 . California Coolies

9. Proportions 10 - 12. Confirmations

13. Asylums, Query 14. Cause and effect.

(7 )

Syllabus of Topics and Cases. IV . The Pharmacology of Opium . . . . . . 43 | 11. O . with Alcoholics 1. Opium , Synonyms 2, 3. Physiology, Varieties

An Æsculapian

12. Black-Drop, Phila. 13, 14 . McMunn , Paregoric 15. Godfrey's Cordial Winslow , Bailey & Co. 16 , 17. The “ Circulatores”

4. The Chandoo, Tye 5. Mash -Allah

6, 7. Sublimate, Suleyman 8 . Morphia

9. Laudanum , Coquemar 10. Suicides

| 18 . Weights, Measures

19. Properties, Potencies.

V . Methods of Opium -Stimulation . . . . . . 51 1. Opodipsesis

| 8, 9. The Shops, Salons

2. Yen -Tsiang, the Levant

3, 4. Sailors, the Sunda

10. Constantinople II. Comparisons

5. Quantities, Libermann 6 , 7. Rajpoots, Siam

| 12. Hypodermic use

13 . Case (Parrish )

14 . Wall-St. wonder.

VI. The Physiology of Opium

. . . . .

. . 59

1. Automaticsinertia

5. Sleep, Pattamaras

2. Fancy , judgment

6. Dreams, Propensities

3 . B . of N . Y . Hospital

7. Primal paroxysm

4. The Emotional Fools ' Paradise

VII. The Pathology of Opium

8, 9. Bazaars, L . Den 10 . Amateurs.

.

.

65

1. Obverse and reverse

8. Hyperästhesia

2. The Leaven , Culmination 3. Brain , Stomach 4. Liver, Constipation 5. Miss P. (Quackenbos ) . .

10 , 11. Insomnia , Dreams 12, 12 % . De Quincey, Mrs. M .

6. Exhaustive drains

14 -16 . Dr. C .of W ., N . Y. (Dr.C.)

7. Contour, Styria

9. Privation , Persian 13 . Erotic power

| 17. Cordwainer.

VIII. The Psychology of Opium . . . . . . . 75 1, 2. The Morale, Huc 3. Prof. C . A . Lee

4 -11. Prof. Ordronaux Mrs. L ., Dr. M .

Syllabus of Topics and Cases. 12. Mania, Asylums

13. Suicide, Canton gentleman 14, 15. Rev. Brush ( Barnes) 16. Coleridge

117. Infanticide 18. Malacca, Java 19. Celebes, Amók | 20. Bazaars of E . Asia .

IX . Opium -Literature Reflexively 1. A Haze, Abou Hassan 2. Prof. Porter, the Drama 3. The Spiritus intus The Great Teacher

The Great Captain, etc.

. . . . . . 88

1 7. “ Suspiria ,” « Confessions" 8 . Coleridge, Paracelsus

9. Joseph Boswell Cottle 10, 11. “ Fixed Principles” The Shipwreck , the Rime 12. Library-purgations

4 . Aberrances 5 . Aristarchus Secundus

13. B . the autobiographer

Trismegistus Alter

14 - 16 . Lamartine, Hall

6 . De Quincey

9

17. John Randolph.

X . Longevity, Personal Deterioration . . . . . 99 1. The Prospective

13. Discrepant views

Plato, Suleyman Visrajée, Philadelphian Octogenarians 2. Dr. O 'Shaughnessy Oxley, Bowring, Lee Harper, Assei-Batang . Factories at Benares

4. Cabanis, Singapore A Nebuchadnezzar 5. Chrystie family (S.)

6 . Opium -aspect 7. Turkish Effendi

8. The Why's, Doolittle

9. Littérateurs

10 -16. The Nestor, Captain L .

XI. Immaturity, Family Degeneracy . . . . . III 1. The Climacteric

6. Prof. Ogston, Morel

2. Malacca, Formosa 3. Assam (Bruce)

7, 8. P., & B. (Pitcher) 9. Norway, Dr. Howe Binghamton, Dr. Down 10 . Hereditation (Parrish ) Nero, a Coleridge

4. Hereditation Aristotle, Lucretius

Synd Ahmed , the Similia Analogies, Youatt 5 . Corruption ofblood

Sterility (Palmer)

11. Macnish , Vanarsdale 12. Boys in China Cotton -mills, the Fens

Syllabus of Topics and Cases.

10

19. The Nemesis

13- 16. J. W . A . (Pitcher)

Mortuary Registers | 20 . A Foster- child .

17. Case (Palmer)

18 . Singapore, Phila .. XII. Idiosyncrasies

. . . . . . . . . . 125 8 , 9. A Prince, Reaumur 10. Dr. Vandervoort 3. Extremists, Darius, etc. II. Morbid susceptibility 4. Dr. G ., Cas rares

1, 2. Definition , Cabanis

5. Tolerance

L. X . (Dr. C.)

Rhiza Khan, Roué

12. Race, Climate

13. Smyrna gentleman

6. Morphine (MacGillivray)

1 14 . The Prima-facie.

7 . A Turk , Wilberforce

XIII. Utilities of Opium , Anomalies . . . . . 135 1, 2. The Catholicon Wedelius, Sydenham , etc. 3. Euthanasia , Lee

Andersonville 14. O . roborant, Dr. Burnes 15 . Canadian , Dr. Lente

4. Nerve-disorder, Dr. O . 5. Queen Dido 6. Molière and the doctors

16 - 19. Capt. Griswold Laudanum at Sea 20. C . soldiers, Yaous

21. Rajpoot soldiery

7. The Duchess, N . Y . lady 8. Mrs. B. ( Quackenbos) 9. Dr. Brown and Effie

22. The Ramadan 23. Anomalies, Fakir

10 . The Sensationalists

The Suttee, Dervishes

11. Hunger and thirst

Delhi, Aurungzebe

12. Cotton -famine

13. London, Halcarras

I

24. Home-exploitations Mock-heroic, Bull's-Head

Poudre Arsenicale.

XIV . The Causes and Occasions . . . . . . 151 1. The Physical Disease, the Nursery 2 . Mrs. B . (Hannä)

3. Fashion in disease

4 . R . and homeopathy 5. Doctors F . and P. 6 . Chronic maladies Mrs. W . (S .)

| 7 -9. Mrs. R . (Pitcher ) 10. Liniments 11. The Faculty in court 12. A Break -down 13. Vicissitudes 14 . The “ Confessions"

15, 16. Colton, Blair 17. Example, a Sister. ·

11

Syllabus of Topics and Cases.

II

XV . Class, Age, and Sex

. . . . . . . . 161

1. China , Mandarins

| 7. Exempts, Immigrants

2. Hong-merchants, Shirdars

An Apprentice

8 . The Cyprians 9. Clergy (Farwell) 10 . Advocates, 'Change

3. Pirates, Sailors Ladies of the fancy

4. G . B., Looms,Smitheries

II. Thespians ( Q .) 12. The Doctors, S .

5 . Opiophiles 6 . U . S ., Classes Brain -workers Haut-ton , bas-ton

The Invalids

13. Students (Lee)

14 . Cowper, Byron | 15. Antonelli.

XVI. The Posology of Opium

. . . . . . . 170 12. Medium , Amoy

1. The Ars nil credendi

Aleppo, Singapore Mt. Hope, Tarrant

Van Swieten , Garcias

2. Initials, Chicagoan

Libermann, Eupatoria 3. Big doses, Hawkins

13. Graduations, Little, etc.

4 . Laudanum , Atlanta

15. Periodicity

14 . Ontario lady

Saturation, Jones

5. Paregoric, McMunn

Lente, Union Square Formiggini, Brooklyn A Youth (L ), Binghamton 16 . Abrupt advances 6 - 8. Morphine, Drachm -doses I Bradford, Binghamton

Gill, Redwine, Naumann

17. N . Y . patient (Bedford)

Leys, N . Y. Druggist 9. Wisconsin (Barnes)

18. Back -track

Gates,a Frenchman 19. Devices, Miss P ., Nibbles

10 . Minima, Maxima

11. Disease, Pinel, Knight Zaviani, Bellevue

20. Reductions, De Q. |

Mr. B., the Merchant.

XVII. Qualified Vincibility . . . . . . . V . Swieten , Trousseau 1. The Longing, Diagnosis

2. Oppenheim , etc. 3. A Lady (Allen ), Sindbad 4. Concealment, C . 5. Dominant symptom

A Chinese, De Q ., Mr. B. 6. Dr. W . (Naumann ) 7. Grass widow (Dr. L.)

8– 15. Hinman (Dr. C.).

185

12

Syllabus of Topics and Cases. XVIII. Reforms, Failures . . . . . . . . 198 1. Redintegration, Time 2. Desuetude

17 -9. Wisconsin (Barnes)

10. Half-and -half (Whalley)

Testimonies, Cases

3. De Quincey, Coleridge 4, 5. Randolph , Taou -Kwang

11, 12. Mrs. B. (S.), Mrs. Dr. S. 13. Prospect (Pitcher) 14 . Mrs . M . (Dr. Earle )

6. Christison, Stokes 115, 16. A Protean (Quackenbos). XIX . Specific Therapeia . . . . . . . . . 211 1. Rationes medendi 14 . Child case (Wood) 2. The Perturbative 15, 16 . Physician, Lady 3. Tantalizers 17. Devices, Coxalgia 4, 5. Macgowan , Br. Med. J.

6 -8. Bellevue (Prof. Flint) 9 . Reductions, Bernir 10. Malwa merchant

11, 12. St.Mary's, Loines 13. Dr. Sheldon (Perkins)

| 18. Brooklynite, Highlander 19. Substitutions, Lee

20. Dysentery (Christison) 22-24. Crispinus iterum (L.) | 25–29. Mrs. L. T. (Dr. C.). 21. Wine, Acosta

XX . Therapeutics and Hygeiene . . . . . . 1. The Physician 6. Wine (Aliston) 2. Matriculation 7. Strong Meats 3. The Materies, Segregation 8. Constipation , Syringe 4. The M . Medica, Pliny 9. Baths, Romans

Sooloo Prince (Wilkes)

10. Gymnastics vs. logic

Svapnia-opium

11. Moral needs (Reid )

5. Coffee and caffeine

229

12. February face

| 13. The Sine-qua-non 14 . Half-cures, “ Confections."

Case (Senneker)

XXI. Institutional Discipline . . . . . . . 237 8, 9. Auctioneer, Author 1, 2. Three Asylums 3, 4 . Binghamton -- Dr. Day A Soldier

5. H . on Paregoric 6 , 7 . Mrs. P. and Letter

10. Dr. T . and Dr. Bolus 11. The Sanitarium -- Dr. Parrish Hæmorrhoids 12. Prof. gentleman

Syllabus of Topics and Cases. 13, 14. Merchant, Student 15. The Hypodermic case 16 . Views of Dr. P. 17. Kalamazoo _ Dr. V . Deusen

Phlegmasia, Mrs. P. 18. Hæmorrhoids

13

19. Reform 20, 21. Necrosis, Banker 22. Example, Miss F . 23. Observations, Dr. V . D . | 24, 26. Queries | 25, 27. Incarceration .

XXII. Narcotic Stimuli - Alcoholics . . . . . 253 19. Ale, Comparisons 1. The Propensity Robertson , etc. 2. Penn. Med . Society

3. Varieties and Names 4. The Vine, the Palm 5. The Symposia Valhalla , the Monks

6 . Non -enumerated 7 . Alcohol and Wine, what

8. Osiris and Zythus Ceres, Bacchus, Gambrinus

9. Wines of antiquity 10 . Must , Columella

Arabian method 11. Fermented wines Homer, Hortensius Bagdad , Persia 12 . Wines of Palestine

13. Joseph, Dibs 14 - 16 . Yayin and Congeners Tirosh , Sikera , Nazarite 17. Synonyms

20 . Lager, Bavaria England, U . S., Louis 21. Cider, Normandy Devonshire, Channel Is. 22. Fermentation, Geber · Distillation , Villanova

Acqua vite Egypt, “ Strong Drink” | 23. Chemistry , Adulterations Dr. Percy , Fusel Oil

Broadway brandy

Miamiwhiskey 24. Fretting -in, Lead 25. The Nux, Persia, France Jersey Heidsick

Malaga, Port, Logwood 26, 27. Occleve, Percentages 28. Cordials, “ the Widow "

Ulysses, the Lotophagi Circe, the Pramnian

Balsamic wines

Cana, “ New bottles” 29. Malefactors, Golgotha 18. Sacramental wine “ The Blue Sisters" The Passover, Mishna 130. Liqueurs, Anisette 31. Absinthe Suisse.

XXIII. Opium and Alcoholics Contrasted . . . 277 1, 2. Parallelisms 3. The Paroxysms The Passions, Alexander

Sleep, Insomnia

Syllabus of Topics and Cases.

14

Lawyer, Doctor, Rajah

4. Affinities

Vulture and vampire German (Dr. C.), Cooke 5. Mania, Statistics 6 . Intervals 7. Temperaments 8. Festive affiliations

Davidson 's Madam

Mr. B., Prof. Pitcher | 9. Ratios, Four Drunkards

10 . King Cole or King Magas ? II. Cravings, Ho-King-Shan 12. “ Probe” Case

13. Sex, the Pis-aller.

XXIV . The Alternative, the Poppy or the Vine . . 287 1, 2. Encroachments Boethius, Æschylus, etc. Rhetoric vs. fact Virgil, Pangasis 3. Samshu in China

4. Turkey , Persia, Haroun Noureddin , Zeyn 5 . Teetotalism in G . B .

Importations simul Drs. Taylor and Rhind 6. Teetotalism in U . S. Baltimorean Crusade

15. Wine alimentive

Androcydes

The Pylian, Livia Cornaro, Parr 16. Pliny, Chemistry 17. Prof. Agassiz , Bavaria

18. Asthenia , the Faculty Apollodorus, Tokay

Importations of Opium

19. Diphtheria (Bricheteau)

The Miss. Valley, N . Eng.

20 . Wine-vats

7 . Water, Pindar

Salernum , Boadicea 8 . Sir F. Head , Woolwich

9. Isthmian Games Athletes, Oxonians

10 . Campaigning, Russia

Afghanistan, Hoogly Sahara, Buddha

II. Latitude, Acre

12 . The Hyperboreans

Esquimaux youth Aikin etc., Dr. Hooker 13. Laudators of wine Hafiz ,the Canticles Plato, Hippocrates

14. The Rabbins, Usbek

W . a vulnerary

Priest and Samaritan 21. Strong Liquors Profs. Horsford and Jackson Capt. Bligh, Ireland Hotels, “ European plan"

22. A Rum -diet(Anstie) 23 . Malaria, Madras

Walcheren, Dr. Mosely 24. Typhoid , Rum 25. Exhilaration , Cabanis Syracuse, Capua Hastings, Naseby | 26. Excess and recoil Strychnine, Arsenic Lobster, Elimination

15

Syllabus of Topics and Cases. 27. Controversies, Thudichum

138 . The Responsibility " The Samagorean, etc. The Lageos, Siege of Troy The Gauls, Cider 39. Lager vs. Grog 40. Wine in G . B., Whiskey, do. 41. The Sacred Records Radical expounders The Exode, Abraham

Westminster H .

Magendie

28 . The Equilibrium Hermann,Séquard 29 . Alcohol and water

Nature's Laboratory U . on a picnic

30. The Alembic, Camden

Solomon , Nehemiah

31. Drunkenness

42. Times and seasons, Paul

G . B., France, U . S. Switzerland

Song of Moses

Tobago , Dr. Guy

Declaration of Jesus, Pliny

32. Vine-limits, Greece

Timothy, Isaiah 43. Wine, corn and oil Psalmist, the “ Third Seal”

33. Derby, Claret 34. On the Rhine, Thompson

44 . The woes, Prof. Green

35. Bavaria, Rev. Dr. Bellows 36 . France, Spain

37. The Portrait

|

45. Themodel Bishop John Baptist,the Son of man.

XXV. Opium and Cannabis Contrasted . . . 1. The Authorities

'

320

2. Countries, Gozeh

12, 13. Brahmin, Delphi O 'Shaughnessy 's pupil

3. Massagetæ , Dampier 4 -6 . Hashisch , Brain Appetite, Arabs

Prof. Wood, Experiments 14. Saracens, Allahamaut The Hashasheen 15. H . exhaustive

7. Sleep , Mahmoud

Dementia, Santons

Ala-ed -Deen 8. Time and Space, Dreams

16 . Aphrodisia

Personal identity 9. Grotesque illusions

Arsenic case 17. Lemon juice, Tunis 18. Hyoscyamus Belladonna, Winslow

10. Will, Hauteur II. Dual existence

N . Y . Lawyer, Joffe

| 19. Courtesans in India

Datura-seed and wine.

Syllabus of Topics and Cases .

16

XXVI. Tobacco Compared, and the Coca 1. Humboldt Names and dates

2. Girls in China Japan , Iceland G . B ., France, U . S. 3, 4: The Quæstio vexata The “ Counterblaste" Beaumont, Bobadil

5. “ Message to Humanity” 6 . Tombak, Latakia

. . . 331

20. Liabilities 21. Sedentary life Saxony tailors

22, 23. Wear-and-tear Hammond, Brodie The Caravan, Cornwall 24. Louvois,Maestricht 25. Ouvriers, Lorillard's

26. Constitution , Race Morbid condition

Nicotina, Perrique

27. Decaisne ofboys

Nicotiana

28 . Arrested development

7. Orfila , Bernard

St Giles's D ., Santeuil 8. Fougnies, Bocarmé 9 . Fr. troop of horse 1.0. Confederate whiskey Irish seasoning II. Idiosyncrasy Dr. Druhen's cases

12. Van Helmont, Specialists 13 , Intellect, Goethe

Insomnia (Dr. Hervey) 14 . The Brain (Duglise ) French Navy, the Levant Paralysis (Grisolle) Epileptic boys 15, 16. Longevity , the Heart

The Polytechnic Fall- River School

29. The Quid Child in Portage Co., O .

30, 31. The Cigarro Lizars, DaGama, Paris 32. Albuminuria, Mr. C.

33. Virility, a Case 34. The Pipe, Contrasts Slam , Oriental tobacco Siam

35 . The Badens, Cigarrita

36 . Snuff, Pope Pius, etc. 37 . Valerianic ether

Coffee, Tannin

17. Amaurosis, Sichel

The Killikinnick Sassafras, Thompson 38. Turkish Pipe 39. Length, Case, Dr. C .

18 . Cancer ofLip , Fleury

40 . Prudence

Brandy vs. tobacco

Snuff-dippers South 41, 42. Coca, La Paz Chasqueros, Table -lands 19. California greys 43. Puna hunts, a Ditcher.

Syllabus of Topics and Cases, XXVII. Coffee and Tea in the Contrast . . . : 358 1, 2. Dr. Sigmond, Lo-Yu

10. Theine, Caffeine, Oil

Boston Tea-party

Tea-tasters , the Elders 11. Quarter-deck, Texas fog

3 . China, Tea vice water

12. Catholic and Protestant 13. Old Port vice 14 . Cocoa, Cacuatl

Borromeo, Mrs. Wesley

4. Pike's Peak

5. Antisoporific 6 , 7. Coffee, History

Cardinal Richelieu

Intellect, the Lethe 8. Caravans, the Plains Belgian miner, Dr. Leven

15 . Sophistication

Green and Black Teas

16. Coffee and Selection 17. Coffee-leaves

Eremacausis

The Doctors of Salernum .

9. Elimination ,Sandys

XXVIII. Legislation against Stimuli . . . . . 367 1, 2. Monitions from the Past

12. Statistical summaries

3. The two Systems Edict of Confiscation

13. Zeal, Higher Law The Colonial Puritan 14. Chicago Temp. Convention

Rev . Doolittle, Hung-Fund

15 . Jealousy of privilege

4. Abbas, Kien -Long 5. The Vine, Domitian Charlemagne

Abdulrahman Persia , Connecticut 6. Norway and the Storthing

Dr. Cooley, Tully A Teetotaler

16 . Monopoly

8. The Popes,Mahomet IV.

17. Force, the Feasible Guarda-costas 18. Rigid Inspection The License, Gothenburg

9. “ Counterblaste," Raleigh

19. Responsibility and damages

7. Tobacco, Abbas II.

10. Colonial decrees

Illinois, Penna., N . Y .

II. The Amuraths, the “ Judges" 20 . Equal legislation Pythagoreans Women 's Petition I

21. Foster the Vine.

XXIX . Deductions .

. . .

385

1 - 14 .

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

OPIUM . INTRODUCTION. “ Vera loquor, veri vix habitura fidem .” _ Ovid.

“ Le vrai n'est pas toujours le vraisemblable.” — RocheFOUCAULT .

1. A PREFACE is properly the simple enunciation of a work in its outlines of structure alone ; the unfolding of the substratum of facts , with the reasonings and opinions thereupon educed, must proceed with the presentation of the specialthemes pari passu . Fidelity ofdescription will ever bear the semblance of proportionateness, neither ex

aggerating incident for the sake of pandering to a prurient curiosity, nor yet ignoring,or else glossing over, correlative facts out of squeamish delicacy or overweening prudence. The suppressio veri may lead the earnest inquirer astray as

certainly as the suggestio falsi. 2. Unique cases, however serviceable to the scientist for supplying the chasms in his Index rerum , must never be mistaken for representative descriptions.

The history of

opium -eating did not have inception in the epistolary rev elations of Coleridge and the Confessions of De Quincey, though well it were could such history , with their mem ories, die out. Narratives of isolated instances, fragment ary records of singular personal experiences, when viewed through a heterogeneous medium , or arranged upon a

variable scale of adjustment, are as sure to put the unin ( 19 )

20

Introduction .

structed layman upon the wrong tack , as is the fog-whistle to send the ship astrand when some land-lubber, who has not yet had his first exercise upon the nautical alphabet , has been set to guide the helm . 3 . Themorbid craving for narcotic stimuli, artificial and of forced production as it may have been in its incipiency, grows to be as imperious in its exactions as it is inexpug

nable when confirmed . The natural appetite, rebellious and recalcitrant against the primary assaults, becomes gradually tractable and accommodative before that a-pos teriori pressure which , never relaxing from spontaneous exhaustion , on the contrary is ever cumulative and cumu

lating. In view of such facts, is it not incumbent upon

the sagacious legislator as well as the sober moralist earn estly to consider, if indeed from no more elevated stand

point than the low level of a Malthusian utilitarianism , whether by timeous movement wemay not throw up some wall of circumvallation around our beleaguered city, that

shall more effectually shield us against those noxious in vaders that are, year by year, floated to our shores from the lands of the prolific Orient? In the warfare here in

augurated , we have for our antagonist a power subtle in his contrivings, stealthy in his approaches, dangerous as he is insidious, mischievous as he is plausible and seduc tive. “ Venienti occurrite morbo " “ Hang out the banner on the outer wall !”

4 . In attestation of the fidelity to truth and the earn

estness of purpose that have governed the writer in the prosecution of his researches, it should be understood at the outset that no case , other than what carries the in

dorsement of a veracious and a competent observer, ob tains place upon these pages . Even within this line of

Introduction.

21

limitation the Horatian rule of criticism , “ Ubi plura tollenda relinquendis,” has been applied, not arbitrarily indeed , yet discriminatively and with much reserve. As for hypothetical cases, uncertified facts , and postulative

speculations, all such have been scrupulously sifted out and swept aside into their proper oblivion .

Names, out

of delicacy towards interested parties , are suppressed for

the most part, “ Parcere personis, dicere de vitiis” --

our concern being less with names than with narratives : the vouchers , be it understood nevertheless , are at com

mand for verification .

5 . For the procuring of the material, physiological and statistical, as prerequisite to the prosecution of our main

inquiries,the Records of Medical Journalism , with the Re ports of Asylums and other Reformatories, - volumes that cover a continuous period of two-thirds of a century and that count up by hundreds, - have been very thoroughly

surveyed ,and largely gleaned from ; while ancient author ities also have been brought to cast their reflected light

over this field of research . The cases herein comprised

and brought under review exceed somewhat the number 230 ; and of these, more than one-half (about equally di vided as to sex) are new cases, specially contributed for publication here . Of physicians and surgeons specifically cited , English, Continental, and American ,the number is 175 , and the apothecaries count up to one-fifth as many. Ofnon -professional explorerswho have made opium - eating

a subject of individual examination ,among whom are reck oned , Travellers in the Far East, Missionaries, English and American , Chinese officials, Civilians in British India and Malacca, and at Chinese ports, experts not a few of

22 .

Introduc

. tion

them ,and of reputations circumscribed by no professional landmarks nor territorial barriers , there are 150 and above

- names enough altogether to make a cumbrous biblio graphy. Technical terms scarcely require a glossary , being sufficiently explained by their contexts ; and as for quotation , that must not be confounded with argument,

which is cited simply as being apologetic only, or asbeing apropos for embellishment. 6 . In recognition of obligations to numerous profes

sional correspondents, who have furnished communica tions for this book and with the laudable purpose of “ doing the state some service," the author desires hereby to return thanks. Their names appear in their respective places of association . To the Rev. Peter

Parker, M .D ., American missionary at Canton in 1834 and after, and to D . J. Macgowan , M .D .,also missionary at the Ningpo Station about the same period , whose friendly communications by letter first incited the writer to make his essay upon the present line of investigation ,

he desires thus publicly to express his grateful apprecia tion .

CHAPTER I. THE POPPY - ITS HISTORY, MYTHIC AND TRADITIONAL, “ Pro magna teste vetustas

Creditur.” - Ovid . “ Pauvres humains, qui bonheur attendez,

Levez vos cours et nos dictes entendez." - RABELAIS.

1. In the ancient mythologies, Greek and Roman ,

the early existence and use of the Poppy have abun dant attestation . Cybele, mother of the gods, is represented on the old monuments as wearing a

wreath of poppies, a symbol of fecundity (Jacques). The Romans accounted the plant a gift of Demeter or Ceres, the goddess of corn , and she is described as

bearing a sceptre in one hand , and in the other the symbolic capsule. Ovid introduces Night advancing with the significant emblem in her coronet : “ Interea placidam redimita papavera frontem Nox venit, et secum somnia nigra trahit.”

Somnus also was often painted as reposing upon a bed of snowy poppies. Silius Italicus speaks of him

as wandering about by night, scattering from his loaded horn the medicated herb as he passes along : “ Curvoque volucris

Per tenebras portat medicata papavera cornu.”

Virgil in the Georgics instances the injunction to ( 23 )

24

Opium .

make an offering of the poppy to the infernal deities for the repose of the manes of Orpheus : “ Inferias Orphei Lethæa papavera mittes.”

Catullus adverts to the “ Lethæa papavera ," and Tibullus to the “ medicata papavera.” Homer, earlier than any of the rest, who dates A.C . 900 about, names

the poppy among the familiar embellishments of the garden . The poets, careful observers of natural phe nomena and faithful chroniclers of antique lore as they ever are, have thus assigned to the poppy a prehistoric existence as also a foremost pre- eminence. Ex pede

Herculem :- allusions thus distinctive and positive must have an origination outside of the mere un substantial creations of the poet 's brain .

2. Diodorus relates that the women of Thebes were acquainted with an herb having properties analogous to those of the poppy certainly , though he does not

specify the name. Pliny, while he does not include the poppy in his enumeration of the indigenous pro ducts on the Nile -border, plainly well understood

its virtues, as is evident from the following passage : “ Succus papaveris densatur, cui non vis soporifera modo inest, verum si copiosior hauriatur, mortifera

per somnos.” 3. The poppy was evidently known to the Romans at least five centuries before the Christian era, being spoken of by Livy as conspicuous in the gardens of

Tarquinius Superbus. Hippocrates, A.C. 460 ,was ac quainted with the same, and among all the physicians and herbalists of his period, the plant ever holds a

The Poppy — Its History, Mythic and Traditional. 25 prominent place. The famous Mithridaticum , which consisted of thirty -six ingredients, and upon which, as a basis,Andromachus, physician to Nero, compounded his Theriaca, contained poppy-extract in large pro portion . Here was the Philonium also, an opiated

electuary (as commonly supposed, combining hyoscy

amus), a compound experimentally known to Plato , who, it appears , was wont to innovate upon his vege

tarian habitudes with something more potent than beans and cress. This doughty champion in the van of the philosophers thus turns up in a novel associa tion , as a pioneer to the long line of opium -eaters . Dioscorides, the Linnæus by anticipation of his day, and Galen , the erudite physician of a period some what later,both accord to the poppy a precedent rank. 4. To Egypt,mother of the ancient civilization and

cradle ofart,medical writers have from earliest times been prone to point, as having been also the original herbarium of the botanic world. All refer with vari ous speculations to the Nepenthes of the Odyssey as de

scribed in Lib . iv. 220 . Thirty centuries since it was, as we measure the veiled past, when on the occasion of a nuptial banquet in the halls of Menelaus, at which Telemachus was present as a guest of honor, Helen , the famed in Trojan story , is related to have commin

gled for the use of her company a cordial of some sort

“ Papuazov

NyTeves, e’azodov to zazwy eenBoy dtartwy," “ A mirth -inspiring bowl,

To clear the clouded front of wrinkled care And dry the tearful sluices of despair"

26

Opium .

as it would do through twenty -four hours continu

ously . The essential element, or what imparted to this liquor its intoxicant virtue proper, has been generally thought to have been a poppy-essence. Such is the viėw maintained by the learned Sprengel; and Van Swieten indicates his belief in the following

passage : “ Papaver, instar Helenæ Nepenthes,oblivi onem omnium malorum inducit.” That the prevalent opinion in the time of Claudian

was in accordance with this, is plain from the follow

ing significant passage, indicative both of the origin of the plant which affords our opium , and of the primi tive mode of preparation . The lines belong to an

epithalamium dedicated to Palladius : “ Gemmatis alii per totum balsamatectum Effudere cadis, duro quæ saucius ungue,

Niliacus pingue desudat vulnere cortex.”

5 . The Nepenthes, a complex compound, and what Pliny thus adverts to as the “ Nobile Nepenthes ob livionem tristitiæ afferens," not unlikely, as indeed Dioscorides suspected ,combined the Cannabis besides. At the beginning of the present century and later, says Lane, among the common people of Egypt the Cannabis in one or another form , as compared with opium , was in more familiar use ; and to this day a wine is made corresponding in character to the de scription by Dioscorides, and which , mingled with their booza or barley -wine, bears the name of bandji. In Constantine, Algeria , the fashion at the soirées is to smoke the herb , and also to commingle thewine

in their coffee ; and thereupon ensues singing and

The Poppy — Its History, Mythic and Traditional. 27

dancing with hilarious extravagance in every way. Galen adverts to a virous liquor made from the seeds of the hemp, a beverag : anciently used for its exhila rating inspirations.

This much is rendered certain ,

the Cannabis was a familiar stimulant in the period of the Caliphate. 6 . Very noticeable is the fact that the Hebrew Scriptures, amid references to balsamics and other aromatics, with their confections, make no distinctive allusion to the poppy, nor indeed to any narcotic extract, unless myrrh be so accounted.

For such

omission there is to be found a measurable explana

tion, perhaps, in the consideration that the Hebrew family , that “ peculiar people,” though having . so journed in the land of Egypt, their “ house of bond age,” for four hundred years, were kept nevertheless by the ruling power carefully segregated from the indigenous race, and under the governance of rigid taskmasters who made their lives " bitter with hard bondage.” The “ strong drink" repeatedly spoken of in Leviticus and the prophetic writings was inebri

ating rather than soporific (Prov. XX - I, and Isa. V 11) ; though myrrhated and absinthiated liquors were employed of old for their recognized stupefactive powers . Vide chap. xxii.

CHAPTER I I. THE COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF OPIUM IN EUROPE AND THE

O RIENT.

" Audax Japeti genus Ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit.” – HORACE.

“ Japheth shall dwell in the tents of Shem .” — The PatriARCH .

1. Among Semitic peoples it originally was where the poppy -extract, Opium , found its marts and con sumers ; and if Egypt was the originator, Persia cer tainly — “ cette patrie de pavot,” says Ferishta — is the

historic foster-mother. The Moslem , it is reckoned, carried opium to the China-frontier as early as the tenth century or before. Chardin , the traveller, who

visited Persia towards the close of the seventeenth cen

tury, found the article a familiar acquaintance there, for Schah Abbas had put it under the ban of a decree a hundred years before this. According to this author,

the Tartar hordes at the era ofthe Conquest, 1644,took opium along with them across the GreatWall ; yet for more than a century after, the new immigrant made no measurable advance,being restricted to medicinal

purposes solely,e.g., in dysentery and melancholia . 2. The importations into China, from alien sources, had not by 1767 exceeded 200 packages annually . From so small beginnings the trade thus initiated by Portuguese adventurers at Whampoa has now , upon ( 28 )

The Commercial History of Opium , etc.

29

various estimates, Johnston 's with the rest, so ex

panded as to comprehend an aggregate of populations numbering above 700 ,000,000 of individuals, in their various distributions over Persia , India , China and Tartary, Malacca and the Sunda Isles, and Turkey and the Levant, even to Mauritania and Egypt; in deed, whithersoever the Crescent has conducted mi

grations opium has borne company, finding for itself successive lodgments. 3. The introduction of opium into the Island of Formosa is credited by Choo - Tsun to the Hung Maou or red -haired (the English ) ; another account implicates more directly the Dutch merchants of Batavia .

4 . Hindustan , which furnishes eight-tenths of the

total supply for China,might be styled , and without hyperbole, an immense poppy-garden .

The importations from India into China were : 1767 — 200 caissons.

1800 - 1810 — 2 ,500 piculs (13373 lbs.), average. 1820 — 4 ,700 (7,000 ?) piculs . 1830 — 18 ,700 “ “ 1840 — ( 1838, 48,000) 50 ,000 piculs. 1850 — 1848 - 9 , 54 ,000 ) 55,000 “ 1860 — 60,000 piculs upon estimate. 1867 – 75,000 " ( = 10,000,000 lbs.) — Commis

sioners of Inspection . 5 . Population . (Cooke, etc.) 1812 — 362,000,000 . 1842 — 415,000,000. 1867 — ( 1862, 450,000 ,000,) 460,000,000. 3*

Opium .

30

For the later decennial periods there has been a falling off below the two per-cent. of annual increase that was, a reduction variously ascribable to poverty , increasing celibacy ,and impaired fecundity and infant icide,the direct and palpable offshoots of the national vice.

6 . Opium being in China a dutiable article , a large margin must be allowed for the contraband traffic.

Some presumptive estimate may be formed of the extent of such traffic from an item of the commercial history of the country for 1839. About this year had been issued the famous “ Edict,” which proscribed and condemned to destruction all the opium then in

the ports. Within a twelvemonth thereafter there passed through Canton 1800 piculs, upon 700 of which only , or 40 per-cent. of the whole , was the duty paid .

In view of the fact that there is to be guarded a coast line of twenty-five hundred miles, swarming with a population whose supreme passion is the procurement of opium at all hazards, legitimately or illicitly, an addition of 1212 per-cent. to the customs-figures

would be a safe reckoning. 7 . There is besides a large home-production , which Dr. Macgowan, more than twenty years since, esti

mated as coming up to twenty-five per-cent. on the importations.

The cultivation has proceeded for

years in the southwest province, Yunnun ,and has ex tended (on the authority of Waterton ) to at least six provinces, from one of which alone there annually go

out several thousand chests. The accounts for 1869 are , that the manufacture as well as the consumption

The Commercial History of (ipium , etc.

31

is increasing at rapid rates, particularly in Mongolia and Mantchuria .

The home-growth must be very

large; indeed , upon a calculation made by G . S. Cooke, then resident in the country , it approximates to the amount imported. Suppose this domestic supply to have now reached 35 per-cent. only as

compared with the foreign , the people of China are now (1867) consuming in a single year 110 ,620 piculs

= 14 ,750,000 pounds of opium .

To such swelling

proportions has this “ cloud no bigger than a man's hand” expanded itself, and within the range of just

one century !

8. The tabulated records are confirmed every way by miscellaneous facts. As long ago as 1842,Surgeon G . H . Smith, of Pulo - Penang, estimated that one-tenth of the people of the kingdom were then addicted to the opium -pipe, and one-third of that proportion in Malacca. The returns made by Sir John Bowring

for Canton and the contiguous districts give a ratio of 26 per -cent.; three local reports,made by native officials, comprise 4 ,600 smokers out of a total of

13,500 individuals, 33 to 100. In Rajpootana (Col. Tod), the use of opium in one form or another is well

nigh universal; and what is true of this district is equally so of Tartary ,where the Abbé Huc found the pipe in requisition among all classes and everywhere, their tribunals and solemn assemblies not excepted. 9 . In 1843, when the Rev. Mr. Lowrie was at

Amoy, it seemed to him that almost everybody was given to the stimulus ; and Johnson, missionary at Fou -Chow in 1867, found a state of things well-nigh

Opium . as bad. As for the hospitals and almshouses of China, they present records to which nothing corresponding as chargeable to alcoholics is yet furnished by similar

institutions in our own land. In 1844, at Dr. Little's House of Correction in Singapore , of the 44 inmates , 4 out of 5 were found to be consumers ; a proportion

agreeing exactly with the observations of Surgeon Smith .

10. Compare now , by way of contrast, 1867 with 1840 . To the 50,000 pounds of 1840 add 25 per cent. (for the home culture), making no allowance for clandestine importations where there was little or

no inducement to such , the ratio of advance for this

27 years is as 185 : 100, which, compounded with that of population , gives an overplus of 66 .5 per-cent.,

i.e. an increase upon 1840 of 5 to 3. 11. In 1840 the East India Company realized out of the opium -traffic with China the sum of $ 4 ,000,000 ; in 1850 the receipts reached $ 15,000,000, a figure

which had doubled by 1858. More than ten years back ( 1854) the Chinese paid this company for opium alone a sum exceeding in valuation the total export

of their teas and silks together. Indeed, as Dr. Allen has calculated,* the annual surplus profit at the time

from this branch of trade alone was adequate to the liquidation , in the course of seven years, of the twenty million debt that had been incurred by the act of colonial emancipation , principal and interest both .

12 . To such proportions has this species of trade * Vide The Opium Trade: N . Allen , M .D . Lowell, 1853.

The Commercial History of Opium , etc.

33

tentatively undertaken by a few roving mariners now

culminated, fostered as it has been by the indomitable greed of English merchantmen . The humanising tendencies of British civilization, as enforced and sup ported by British artillery, are very palpably illustrated in a saying current among the people of China, of this sort : “ During the opium -war the English gave their

Chinese acquaintance cannon -balls of iron, and after

the war, cannon -balls of opium ; so that our people had the desperate privilege of choice as between being shot to death and poisoned to death .” “ Revenons à

nos moutons — oh nos chères moutons !" 13. Great Britain and the Continent. Paracelsus in troduced opium to the notice of Europeans just about

two centuries ago. All over Europe the gum bears the highest repute for its therapeutic powers, but as a narcotic stimulant it is little known beyond the limits

of the English people and the Parisians.

England

alone (for Scotland is exempt, and Ireland nearly so ) probably consumes more than France and Germany

and the Peninsula altogether. 14. Importations into Great Britain (vide Parliament ary Documents ).

1830 — 22,000 pounds (over re -exportations). 1835 — 30 ,400 1840 - 41,000 185044,000 1860 — 98,300 1867 — 125,000

15. Population.

1840 — 27,000,000.

Opium . 1860 — 29,000,000 .

1867 – 1869, 31,000,000 ) 30 ,000,000 . Ratio of advance for 27 years over increase of pop ulation , as 174 : 100, or as 7 : 4 16. In 1856 Dr. Hawkins of King's Lynn ascer tained upon inquiry that the chief consumption was in Lancashire and other districts , within which are embraced the large manufacturing centres, Shef

field , Manchester, Birmingham , Preston , Notting ham , cities that make up an aggregate population bordering on two millions. The operatives in Lan cashire alone ( Liverpool excluded ) number about two

hundred thousand. A chemist in one locality in formed Dr. H . he had, in a single year, sold in di vided parcels to the amount of two hundred pounds of the drug. Another dealer had thus disposed of a

hundred and forty pounds, with the extras of Lauda

num and Godfrey's Cordial, to the extent of ten gal lons per week . Here was opium enough, sold at one

shop alone, adequate to the supplying of fifteen hun dred persons with one drachm of laudanum every

day of the year. In the town of Preston , 1843, as was ascertained, sixteen hundred families were regu lar purchasers of Godfrey, making a ratio of twelve and a half upon the entire population . 17 . Some years since, Dr. A . S . Taylor, an eminent

toxicologist, presented, by appointment, to a Com mittee of Parliament, a report of observations and

inquiries made upon a survey of Marshland and the

contiguous districts.

A druggist whom he met in

one parish , assured him he had made sales in small

The Commercial History of Opium , etc.

35

packages during the year previous to the amount of a thousand pounds; a quantity not equal to the de mand by a half. This informant declared further,

that there was not a village in all that region round but could show at least one shop and its counter loaded with the little laudanum -vials, even to the hundreds, for the accommodation of customers retir ing from the workshops on Saturday nights. Thus

has an aggressive trade with the foreigner recoiled to plague the aggressor in his own homesteads

CHAPTER III. THE OPIUM - RECORD FOR THE UNITED STATES. “ Nec vates Helėnus, quum multa horrenda canebat,

Hos mihi prædixit luctus, non dira Celæno." - VIRGIL. “ If the trumpet utter an indistinct sound,who shall.equip himself

for the campaign ?” — ST. PAUL.

1. For the Western hemisphere as well as for the

Far East, India is the great store-house, our own sup plies being procured mediately, and through English marts. Disturbances in trade incident to the Rebel

lion did not materially embarrass the commerce in opium . Our exports are inconsiderable : ten per cent. of that inventoried covered the drawback for

twelve years, 1845 – 1857. 2. Importations. (D . M . Stone. *) 1840 — 24,000 pounds (estimate upon price at $ 1.70 ).

1850 — 87,000

“

1860— 105,000 " 1867 — (Items.

(average for three years).

(over export'n, price $ 4.50).

Vide U . S . Report on Com . and

Nav.)

135,350 lbs. Opium

9,850 “ (= 5 ,400 of Extract) 785 “ (= 981 T. oz. Mor.) 145,985 “

=

= $483,000 = 40,000 = 2,225 $ 525,225

* One of the Editors of the New York Journal of Commerce, a sta tistician thoroughly au fait upon whatever concerns Navigation and Commerce, domestic or foreign .

( 36 )

The Opium -Record for the United States.

37

Here is the equivalent of 146,000 pounds of crude opium at the prime cost of over half a million of dol lars per annum .

3. Population. 1840 — 17 ,600,000 .

1850 — 23,000,000. 1860 — 31,000,000 .

1867— 37,000,000. (Delmar.) 4. Ratios of Advance : ON Opium.

ON POPULATION.

1840– 1850 — 336 : 100 . . . . . 130 : 100 1850 –1860 — 134 : 100 . . . . . 135 : 100 1860- 1867 — 140 : 100 . . . . . 120 : 100 1840 - 1867 – 650 : 100

. . . . . 210 : 100 .

By such strides has the increase for the last 27 years (1840 - 1867) proceeded, and against the two

fold obstacle of a high tariff and advancing cost; for the present duties are , on opium , $ 2.50 per pound, $ 2.50 the ounce on morphine, and on smoking -opium and the extract 100 per-cent. ad valorem ; and, as for

prices, they have been doubled twice over. In 1869 opium went up for awhile to $ 17.50 the pound, and morphine to $ 11.50 per ounce.

5 . But we have not wound up the log -reel yet.

Excessive cost has given a powerful impetus to stealthy contrivances in evasion of law .

In the opinion ofMr.

D . C . Robbins (a prominent importing druggist of

New York ), expressed after careful inquiry and con sultation, there should be added to the customs- re turns, at the lowest, 25,000 pounds. Such excess will

augment not the aggregates alone, but the ratios as

Opium .

38

well. As opium was not dutiable until after 1840, no addition is to bemade to the amount for that year, so

that the real ratio on quantity between 1867 and 1840 is as 700 : 100 ; or, upon compounding for variation in population , as 333 73 : 100 = 10 : 3.

6 . The number of China Coolies resident on the

Pacific frontier (1867) is rated by Cronise, upon a semi-official estimate, at 60,000 — almost all adult males .

For several years there have been made for

this class express importations of the smoking -opium .

The amount for 1867 was 50,550 pounds, represent ing in equivalency 92,250 pounds of solid opium . The cost of such importation was in 1860 (the first

year ) $ 280,000 ; in 1867, $ 374,000. An addition to the custom -house entries of ten per-cent., to be

credited to smuggling, would be a good deal within the mark unquestionably ; for every month about there is a fresh immigration of Coolies into San Francisco,

who invent all sorts of ingenious contrivances to get within the gate of their El Dorado , without challenge

from scrutinizing tide-waiters.

In the summer of

1869 there was discovered , among the personnel of a newly -arrived shipload, an amount liable to confisca

tion which at auction brought $ 15 ,000. Another seizure, made about a year after, netted two- thirds as much . Such are but specimens of what are liable to

be repeated, on every monthly arrival. The dutiable

amount, with the ten per -cent. added,makes a daily ration of 24 grains, equal to 34 of a drachm of crude opium for every pigtail of their number , the year round.

The Opium -Record for the United States.

39

7 . Opium -eating, viewed as a national habit, may be

reckoned to have taken its departure from 1840. At this time opium was still on the free-list, and prices ranged low, but for all, the importation was very mod

erate ,simply sufficing for outside legitimate call. Es timated upon such basis, the equivalent for 1867 is 53,000 pounds, leaving an overplus of 93,000 pounds,

an excess of 75 per-cent. upon that number alto gether unaccounted for. 8. Another exhibit. — Upon a comparison of opinions entertained by eighteen prominent apothecaries of New York city, as ascertained through individual

and independent inquiry, il of the opium sold by retailers would cover all the prescriptions of physi cians proper ;* and 5 per-cent. besides, excepted from the entire as an extra allowance for the various

nostrums afloat, would be liberal and abundant, as is thought. In this connection it should be distinctly understood, that while the therapeutic value of opium ,

after a more discriminating experience, has suffered no abatement in the estimation of the Profession , the totality of prescriptions, nevertheless, is proportion ately less than as was twenty years ago. Upon this last basis the excess is 146,000 (less the ten per-cent., * Note. Ofthe 18 questioned by the writer, 7 of them named 16 as the maximum , and 12 was the extreme; and Dr. Guion , from a

large observation extending through thirty years, expressed confi

dently the conviction, that zo suffices for all recipes proper. This mean, }, corresponds exactly with the calculation presented by Dr.

E . R . Squibb before a Committee of Congress in 1866 .

um

Opi

so

.

53,000) = 78,400, an excess of 471/2 per- cent. upon 53,000 pounds. 9. Take now the population for 1867, 37 ,000 ,000 ,

upon which abate 14 in consideration of frontiersmen and immigrants — for Bourbon mountain -dew (not thebaic elixirs with other fastidious luxuries) it is

that chooses the pioneer tracks of the ruder civiliza tions— and of the remainder, reckon 73 as constituting

the number past the 25th year (for at an earlier age instances of the habit commenced are rare), the final

number is 9,250,000 persons among whom this 78,400 pounds is to be distributed for the purposes of stimu lation .*

10. Such statistics, fully presented, bear no equivo cal interpretation . But there are,besides, independent

and collateral evidences here and there cropping out, which evince the fact that the opium -mania , far from being restricted within the purlieus of our cities and rural centres, is fast pervading the country -pop

ulations. Scarcely a village or a hamlet is to be * Note. Some comparisons between different countries are not with out significance. The wine produced in France gives a pint-bottle to every inhabitant, all ages reckoned in ; the consumption of whiskey

in Great Britain, and the amount manufactured in the U . S., are

23 of a gallon per capita in the one case , and 272 gals. in the other . The tobacco average for France is 17 pounds per annum ,and for the United Kingdom 173 lbs., i.e. for all ages; in the U . S., according to the census for 1860 , the quantity retained is 7 .6 pounds for every

adult. The disproportions are large as yet; but then it is to be recollected that opium -eating in our own country has scarcely got out of its leading - strings, whereas alcoholics and tobacco have had a life

of two and a half centuries.

The Opium - Record for the United States.

41

excepted as unrepresented by its two classes of ine briates, the devotees to alcoholics and the more miserable slaves to opium .

Turn whichever way,

you will come upon the druggists by twos or tens with their lists (provided they do not set face against

applicants); and as for the doctors, they could tell ugly tales,but that silence — “ expressive silence” it may be

- is written on their foreheads. Dr. Barnes of Ohio has expressed the opinion, that for his section more deaths are traceable to opium as their remote cause than to the alcoholic crudities so freely in use . Dr.

Palmer of Ontario has among his notes of practice the names of above a hundred patients, without count ing such as came to his knowledge by simple hear

say, invalids from such enslavement.

11. Thus addresses thewriter, a physician and drug gist of a New England city , Dr. S . S. : “ In this town

I began business twenty years since. The population, then at 10 ,000 , has increased only inconsiderably ,but my sales have advanced from 50 pounds of opium the

first year to 300 pounds now ; and of laudanum four times upon what was formerly required. About 50

regular purchasers come to my shop , and as many more, perhaps, are divided among the other three apothecaries in the place. Small country dealers also

have their quotas of dependents.” Such is no solitary record. 12. In the Portland Press, 1868, a correspondent sounds the alarm -note in these words : “ Very few of

red

our people are aware how many habitual consumers of opium among us a careful scrutiny would dis

42

Opiun.

close. In the little village of Auburn (of the neigh borhood) at least fifty such (as counted up by a resi dent apothecary) regularly purchase their supplies hereabouts ; and the country grocers , too, not a few

of them , find occasion for keeping themselves supplied with a stock.” Corroborative accounts come in from New Jersey and Indiana, from Boston at one extreme

and from St. Louis at another, and from the impov erished South as well. In the Mississipi Valley par ticularly the use of stimuli of every name is fearfully on the increase (Pitcher, Comstock ).

13. Our asylums for inebriates have their repre sentatives also, though thenumbers here are no proper

index of the real proportions, for but a minimum por tion of the patients of this class are disposed to un

dergo any regular disciplinary treatment whatever. From a report of Binghamton for 1864, it appears that out of 7,245 applicants that year, 520 of them ,

or 14 per-cent., had been prostrated either by opium alone,orby this and liquor conjoined. Indeed,among

the older settlements, it might be difficult to find a section of territory with a radius of five miles only , that could not make a show of victims. 14. Such announcements, no figments of conjecture

or barren conclusion, are rather monitory reflexes of pregnant truths. They cannot be wisely overlooked as being mere coincidences ; do they not rather hold among themselves the more determinate and perma

nent relationship of cause and sequence? — a question every way worthy a most scrutinizing elimination .

CHAPTER IV . THE PHARMACOLOGY OF OPIUM .

“ Incedis per ignes Suppositos cineri doloso .” — HORACE.

“ O true Apothecary, thy drugs are quick !” — ROMEO AND JULIET.

1. OPIUM (from Otos, the Juice) — Ufiyoon in Arabic, Ufeem in Hindu, O -fu -jung in Chinese — is the crystalline liquid that exudes from the capsules of the Poppy, and what Galen has poetically denom inated “ Lachrymæ papaveris," poppy -tears. All

species ofthe family yield opium in someproportion ; that known to commerce is in botanicalnomenclature

the Papaver Somniferum . 2 . Opium by pharmaceutical classification ranks among the gums. It is stimulant and exhilarating, tonic and roborant,or anodyne and soporific, accord ing to the indications for using, the quantity em ployed, and the period of use .

The purest extract is

procured from the borders of the great Mediterranean

basin ; Europe and the United States(where the poppy has scarcely as yet secured a habitat) have their sup plies mainly from India . 3. Bengal opium , often adulterated by admixture with foreign ingredients , is inferior in strength to that

from Turkey. At the Exposition Universelle held in 1867, specimens from Persia and the Levant proved ( 43)

44 :

Opiui .

to be of double the strength as compared with others

from India (Schroff). The opium of the Peninsula is bitter and nauseous to the taste, that from Western

Asia is more acrid and heating. In France the im ported gum , having been subjected to a process of depuration , is afterward compacted into masses of

definite strength and inclosed in a stamped envelope of metal-foil. This is the “ opium titré,” as known in . the Paris market. 4 . Prepared Opium , alias Smoking-opium , is properly an extract, procured by subjecting the crude gum to a thorough filtration with water assisted by heat for the menstruum . In China the process is conducted

with the most scrupulous care, as anything of an in ferior quality would be rejected by the chief pur chasers, i.e. the grandees, positively and altogether. This article , known as the Chandoo ( Tschandú),

which constitutes about 54 per-cent. of the original, is marked by a more pronounced development of the exhilarant and sedative properties, with a correspond

ing reduction upon the narcotic element. A similar preparation is the Ya-pieu -kao,made up of Indian and

native opium in mixture.

The residuum of all (fæx)

is denominated Tye or Tinco, and there is further a

refuse of a refuse, the Samshung. 5. In the region of the Bosphorus there is used a confection made by combination with aromatics, and fashioned into the lozenge-form . Pellets of the sort

are put up in packets bearing the label Mash - Allah or Maslach (“ The great gift of God” ), to be exposed for

public sale (Ollivier).

The Pharmacology of Opium .

45

6 . Opium is variously combined , besides, with other

narcotics. At Cairo is found a conserve, El Mogen (Magoon ), in which hyoscyamus is the adjunct. In India it is cannabis resin ,or the datura , or nux vomica . In Borneo opium and tobacco are often smoked to gether.

7 . The Turks supplement the gum with the Sub limate of mercury to the extent even of 10 per- cent. of the mass, and for the purpose of intensifying

the stimulation .

There was an opium -eater at

Broussa who used 40 grains of the sublimate.

A

more marvellous instance is the case of Suleyman Yeyen , a centenarian well known towards the close of the last century as a familiar pedestrian about the

streets of Constantinople, who had attracted the no tice of De Pouqueville, Hobhouse, and other Euro peans. This veteran among the eaters, having used opium a lifetime until with him it had become effete,

betook himself one day to the shop of a Jew , and pro cured a drachm of the mercurial. This Israelite in name that was (but not “ an Israelite indeed ” ), having anxiously expected for over a day the reappearance of

his singular customer, began to apprehend a summons

from the Cadi to answer to the charge of complicity in a suicide, and forthwith shut up shop. To his in tense relief the desired visitant returned after the lapse

of two days, and for a fresh supply . 8 . Morphia (Morphine) is an alkaloid extract, in which the sedative property is amply developed, but where the narcotic force is reduced to the minimum . Good opium yields 8 to 10 per-cent. or more. This

46

m Opiu .

is the form preferred by the more intelligent classes, and what is held in superior favor by the sex. The “ dear morphine” it is that commands the especial patronage of English ladies.

An additional reason

for preference is this, that in the protracted use less disturbance of the stomach eventuates. 9 . Laudanum — in the French Codex an Alcoolé

is a spirituous solution. This form , which in China is limited to the gentry rather, is in the U . S . the choice of plebeians, and of such as have broken down upon alcoholic potations. In Persia there is made a vinous liquor of similar character, the Coque

mar or Cocomar (D 'Herbelot). 10. Laudanum has long been the favorite agent for effecting suicide, but of two hundred cases of direct attempts and accidental substitutions through mis

take, as appears from a collation of cases made by the writer,* laudanum was the form in 138 of them ; and of 60 suicides pure, 46, or 4 out of every 5 , were ac complished by the samemeans. The record for Eng

land and Wales, 1863– 7, is 682 out of an aggregate of 2 ,097 instances. In reference to the suicidal propen sity generally it may be here observed, that when

traceable to moral obliquities it is commonly con

summated, if not by laudanum , then by some other poison proper ; whereas cases that have their origi nation in pure despondency are oftener finished by the more summary process of self-strangulation. * Vide Hammond's Psychological Journal,vol. ii., no. 4, art. 5 .

The Pharmacology of Opium .

47

11. Opium in conjunction with alcohol in any form operates with a revivified energy. This reciprocal ac tion did not escape the notice ofGalen. Champagne

wine or anisette -cordial, for instance , would be an “ extra hazardous” adjunct. In a goodly city of ours, among whose conspicuous adornments are the long

colonnades of towering elms that enfilade its avenues, there was an Æsculapian brother, whose wont was to

prepare himself with liberal potations of the like pre paratory to the expected soirée , and once mingled with the throng, to grow decidedly impulsive and

loquacious in the general not only , but amusingly demonstrative and ingratiative in the particular. 12. Black - Drop ( Quaker Drop ) is an acetous tinc ture. This, as compared with laudanum , exerts a duplicated sedative action, but holds in narcotic in

fluence an inferior place. Themerits of this “ drop" are certified to by a Philadelphian, a purchaser of the stimulus by the gallon for a good while , who , after ample trial, assures her friends that the preparation is less perturbative of the proper nerve -energy, and is

furthermore less damaging to the complexion . 13. McMunn 's Elixir. — A denarcotized laudanum ,

prepared with ether for a menstruum . Extensively used empirically, and held in request by eaters, it has a large patronage in regular practice. 14 . Paregoric. - An aromatized laudanum , cam phor being the adjunct. This elder elixir, originally intended for the infantile period , has long enjoyed a most intimate family -hospitality .

Opium.

15. Godfrey's Cordial.— This and the preceding , with “ Mistress Winslow 's Syrup,” constitute together

a sort of triad of household idolship undisturbed by any rivalling interlopers.

The monopoly of patron

age so long secured to the first two named is now ar rogated by the Soothing Syrup and its arrière- garde, “ Mother Bailey's Quieting Syrup.” The basis of

Winslow — “ haud ignota loquor" — ismorphine ; what had been certified to before upon indubitable testi

mony is now assured by a recent analysis,* which gives nearly one grain of the alkaloid to an ounce of

the liquid . The dose for an infant, as per label, is at least five times over what ordinary prudence would authorize. This nostrum , now distributed broadcast over the country, has well-nigh distanced all com

petitors. 16 . Such are the elixirs and syrups which , as admin istered whether by deluded mothers or crafty nurses, have soothed many and many a luckless infant into

that state of quiet that knows no after-disturbing. Among our publicans there obtains only a very vague apprehension of the pregnant fact that the popular nostrums of the day, the cholera -drops, the pain

killers, the lung-troches and other pectorals, draped as they are in a flaunty incognito, or ensconced as they may be behind the objective screen of a caveat enough, ifmustered into line,tomake up a regiment

owe whatever inherent virtue (if any) they possess to * Vide California Med . Gaz., 1869.

The Pharmacology of Opium .

49

the omnipresent leaven , opium . The stereotyped cautionary phrase, Caveat Emptor, should be the statutory appendix to every one of their trade-marks. 17. The manipulators in this species ofmanufacture — marauders upon society they are, for out of the

life-blood of the people comes their bread — would ap

pear to be the legitimate representatives,by a sort of apostolic succession , of a class described by Celsus, the Circulatores (“ homines circumforanei” ), who went about enticing and amusing the popellum or dregs by

their high -and-low tumbling, and all, “ lucri causa , for

filthy lucre's sake.” The only difference between now and then appears in this, — the originals circulated themselves, their imitators circulate placards.

18 . Weights and Measures (Garrod, Squibb ).- One grain of Opium = A gr. Prepared 0 . = } gr. Mor phine (14 of the Sulphate ) = 24 minims of Laudanum = 42 oz. of Paregoric = 112 oz. of Godfrey. One Fluidrachm = 120 drops of the Tincture, or 80 drops of the Wine of Opium , and one Fluidounce of Laudanum = 20 grs. of Opium . Black -Drop is of double this strength ,McMunn is one-fourth less. The Drop is a variable quantity , adequate to the determi

nation of inconsiderable amounts only . The Flui drachm = 45 drops of Distilled Water, 78 of Wine, and 138 of Alcohol. The French Gramme = 15:4

grains, the Litre = 2' I pints, U . S . 19. Properties and Potencies.— Opium contains six

principal elements. In the view of Bernard ,Mitchell, and Baxt, Thebaine — the same that produces tetanic

50

Opium .

convulsions— is the most toxic , Morphine the most

soporific . A single grain of thebaine injected by Magendie into the jugular of a dog was followed by death within fifteen minutes. Used as stimuli, laud anum is the most energetic, morphia the most equa ble , opium themost variable; and in such relation i

drachm of the gum , 20 grains ofmorphine, and i oz. of laudanum are about of par-efficacy.

CHAPTER V . METHODICAL FORMS OF OPIUM -STIMULATION. “ Que voulez-vous ? Il est fait comme cela.” — FR. PROVERB. “ Oh, thatmen should put an enemyinto their mouthsto stealaway their brains!” — OTHELLO .

1. The term Opodipsesis or Opodipsia is a legiti mate coinage, being pathognomonic of the morbid condition ; Opophagesis or Opophagia (Opium -eating )

is a pseudonym .

This latter term , however,being in

accommodation to the popular idea — though indeed in no proper sense is opium ever taken by any eating process, unless hypothetically so — may serve for a technical convenience as well as any. 2. Among opium -eaters two prevalent usages obtain :

one consisting in swallowing a draught or a bolus,the other in firing a boulette or pea (the chandoo ), and then inhaling the smoke through a pipe adapted to the purpose. Such pipe is known in China by the appellative yen -tsiang or opium -pistol. The people of the Flowery Kingdom universally smoke the

chandoo ; in Persia and the Levant they swallow the lozenge.

3. In the base of the bowl is a chink for transmitting the smoke into a stem , and above this is laid the pel

let. The smoker, having taken the position of recum ( 51 )

Opium . bency with a sideward inclination , the pipe in one

hand and a small lamp for flame in the other, makes

one full inspiration.

Experienced operators swell

the lungs to their full expansion , and after retaining the smoke a considerable time, as long practice

enables them to do, finally exhale the fumes through the nostrils. When the spirituous preparation is used

in such way, as by the grandees, a single whiff of the vaporized liquid permeates the entire cell-area as with

a thrill from a galvanic circuit. 4. For the novice a single pellet may suffice; not so

for the practised smoker. Surgeon Hill describes a scene he witnessed on board the ship Sunda. The smoker, a young man of twenty -four years only ,used eight pellets of the pea-size one after another, and all

in the course of twenty minutes,making one long in spiration after each ; he then fell into a profound sleep, which continued unbroken for three hours. The breathing was heavy and the circulation depressed ,

the pulsations being reduced by about one in twenty . 5. The progress towards stupefaction is less speedy as experience grows into a habit. Old stagers may require hours and inany repetitions ere the coveted excitation is secured.

Libermann, an attaché of the

Imperial army against the Yaous, and the author of

surgical memoirs covering several years, speaks of pellets of 10 – 15 centigrammes in weight, 10 , 20, or 30 of which , even up to 200 ,might be requisite to the complete somnolescence. Suppose the full influence attained in two hours, it will hold for four or five.

6 . In certain regionsmodes altogether peculiar ob

Methodical Forms of Opium - Stimulation .

53

tain . The Rajpoots , a military class exclusively, have the following fashion. On the arrival of a friend, the

first question put to him is, “Umul Nya — Have you opiumed ?" At their festive gatherings a big bowlof water, into which has been dropped a lump of opium , is set in the centre of the table , — when the guests around have a dip each in turn, making a cup of the

hollow of the hand. (Col. Tod, 1829 .) 7. Another mode is observed in Siam . Here the company, be it opium or bang that makes for the time the entertainment, sit squat in a circle, just like a Choctaw with his squaw and the rest, when settled

in a ring around they are ready to pass from mouth to mouth the whiskey -canteen .

8. The opium -shops in the cities (where the hoi polloi, the. “ filth and scum ” are prone to hive) are narrow rooms, secluded from outside observation, dingy and dank , with a solitary lamp suspended mid

way, apparently for the purpose of making darkness visible rather, and which are packed almost to suffo

cation . These dens of dissoluteness and debasement

are but rarely visited by merchants and others of better class, unless with a view to greater privacy for

the time. 9 . “ At the mansions of the rich (says Huc) there is usually found fitted up for the accommodation of friends, a private boudoir , richly ceiled, and garnished

with superb adornments,such as art only can achieve and wealth procure; and here rich paintings, with

choice scraps from Confucius, adorn the walls, and carvings in ivory with other articles of virtù , grace

Opium.

54

the tables. Here also is provided in chief the gilded opium -pipe with all its appurtenances; and here host and guests, unrestrained by curious eyes, deliver themselves up without concern to the inebriating chandoo and its beatific transports.” 10 . In Constantinople the bazaars are adorned in a style more accordant with the Asian pomp of the

Ottoman. The visitor, having placed himself recli ning upon a dais, the servitor in waiting ,with a tactus eruditus such as ever designates the trained expert , deftly lays a single lozenge upon the tongue of the recipient, like as is the manner in a Christian country with the knight of the mortar and pestle, who “ (Most mild of men !) Bids you put out your tongue, Then put it in again .”

11. As between pipe and bolus, in view of their path ologic consequences, says Surgeon Smith , there is little to choose. The chandoo being partially denar

cotized , has the advantage in respect of purity,an ad vantage evenly counterbalanced if not more than that in this, that the area of cellular surface in the ex panded lungs directly exposed to the narcotizing ac

tion is in excess so many times over of that of the stomach -membrane.

12. A third mode of bringing the system under the desired influence, is the Hypodermic method - subcu taneous injection by means of a syringe. In this way one-third the quantity that would ordinarily be taken

by the mouth suffices, i.e. the sameamount exerts a triple force. The practice, as favoring the habit, ap

Methodical Forms of Opium - Stimulation .

55

pears to be less hazardous in instances, but not cer

tainly

Eulenberg in a case of disease made 1200

injections in all, and without manifest injury apper taining. For withdrawal he advises graduated reduc

tions, with atropia incorporated in proportionately increased quantities. Any reliance placed upon this form of use, however, for its supposed comparative se

curity , is likely to prove delusive. Dr. Sewall of N . Y . has just reported two cases. In the first, the practice ,after a twomonths' continuance, was arrested, but not without much embarrassment; the second patient still continues on , writhing as helplessly as if, Laocoon -like, he were wound around in the coils of

some monster-serpent. This gentleman ,now ofmid dle life , having suffered much from a diseased ankle ,

was advised (professionally) to use morphine hypo dermically . The immediate effect being found most soothing and satisfactory, an indefinite continuance

was suggested ; and now , after a habituation for two

years, the invalid is hopelessly delivered over, an ab ject slave to the habit, enervated in body and en

feebled in mind. The thigh of the affected limb is literally studded with punctures, to be counted by the score.

13. There is a case reported by Dr. Parrish ,* mar

vellous indeed in every view . The patient, a country physician , having now become an inmate of the Sani tarium , thus introduces himself before the public. * Vide The Probe: by Joseph Parrish , M . D ., Media, Penna., No. 1 , 1869.

56

Opium .

“ Two years ago I was suffering under a violent attack of neuralgia ; meanwhile I could procure no sleep ,

not even any respite from suffering through the agency of any one of the recognized narcotics as em ployed in the usual modes. A medical friend sug

gested morphine, eighth -grain doses. in solution by the subcutaneous mode.

The relief experienced so

sudden , so complete, I can never forget. Delivered of all pain , I was furthermore enjoying a repose inde scribably entrancing. From the day on which these

sensations occurred, I date my present bondage to a habit that has well-nigh ruined my health , prostrated

my business, and blasted my hopes for coming time.” This gentleman , of good position at home, with a moral constitution peculiarly sensitive under the

pangs of self-reproach , and the mortification arising from having yielded to a fascination whose history he

was sufficiently familiar with , now lay prostrate under

the inertia of despair.

The quantity he had fixed

upon for the day was 5 grains regularly , and for 730 consecutive days he had used his instrument at home when time allowed , or again when abroad in his car riage; by the roadside ; at the house of a patient; or

during a halt atthe tavern. The punctures,averaging several a day, were made irrespective of locality , though commonly near the seat of the central pain , and not unfrequently to the depth of an inch . They

numbered altogether 2190 . Themorphine consumed amounted to 3650 grains, the equivalentof thrice such

quantity taken in the ordinary way, that is to say, 23 ounces. For the sequel vide c. xxi. 15 .

Methodical Forms of Opium - Stimulation.

57

14 . This being eminently an age of novelties and experimentations, there falls in here,not malapropos, a case quite unique in character certainly , and illus trative of what may be more delicately described perhaps by a euphemism , the Methodus per Inver

sionem .

The case is contributed by Dr. L . of New

York. Mrs. B ., demi-veuve, æt. 25, of delicate habit and fair complexion,had been habituated to morphine three to four years, introducing solutions of the same intra rectum , by means of a small acuminated glass

syringe. Repeated efforts to break off, with veratria for a substitute, had been of no permanent avail, for

the appetite would not thus be put down. One day , in the height of the gold-excitement (Sept. 1869), the lady (a frequenter of the bourse) went down to Wall Street about ten o 'clock in the morning, but without

her usual supply which she in her hurry had left be hind. Suddenly seized with overpowering tremors, she rushed into the first saloon she could find and swal

lowed a full tumbler of raw whiskey, and again a second after a little interval only , besides purchasing a bottle for use on the return home. The doctor found

her about 7 P.M ., tremulous all over in body, and in great mental perturbation , for she had drunk, as ap

peared, a good deal besides the extra bottle , though

without any inebriating feeling. Ale was advised for the night, and several pints were taken , but no sleep

came. The case proving intractable (for “ she must have her morphine or die” — so she said ), was, after a few days' treatment, abandoned. Her mode of using was (the account is her own),to pour into the palm of

58

Opium .

the hand a quantity — about 10 grains, as she illus trated by drawing a vial from beneath her pillow — then to transfer the same with water to another vial for so

lution , and from this to charge the instrument. The

operation was repeated several times in the day, and abroad as well as at home; any by-place serving as a convenience, a side-room in a broker's office, or a

nook in a secluded street.

Verily “ knowledge by

witty inventions” is not yet, it would appear, “ past finding out.”

CHAPTER V I. THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF OPIUM .

“ Impia sub dulcimelle venena latent.” — CATULLUS.

“ A dance ofspirits, a mere froth of joy, Thatmantling high, now sparkles , now expires,

Leaving the soul more vapid than before.” — YOUNG.

1. OPIUM exerts its stimulative action in a twofold

direction ,- upon the body, and upon the mind. The earliest ab-interiori impression is an indisposition to locomotion and an inaptitude to exertion every way. Muscular play, whatever there is of it, seems fortui

tous rather than determinative, the lower propensities abate their intensive force and settle into torpidity ,

and the physical state is that of an automatic inertia . The will too,“ that power triumphant where it dares,” lapses into a careless quiescence, the dormancy of reverie .

2. The transformations wrought upon the intellect ual sense and the emotional susceptibilities during the

opium -paroxysm partake indeed of the marvellous. The volitional faculty , that primum -mobile of the in

tellectualman, having shrunk into a mere passivity, judgment the balance-wheel, now swayed this way and that in the conflict between the centripetal and

centrifugal forces reason and imagination, is jolted ( 59 )

Opium . from its pivot-poise, and the soul now disenthralled from terrene clogs is waſted away upon fancy 's exult ant pennons as by an electric rebound, “ Winging its flight from star to star, From world to luminousworld , as far As the universe spreads its flaming wall, ”

to traverse if it may find some empyrean of a more ethereal and enrapturing entrancement than dull earth

affords. The vision is as of some fairy mirage,with out the tantalizing sense of vacuity , without the vapid

disrelish arising from satiety. 3. Illustrative of this spiritual metamorphosis is the

recorded experience of the hospital patient Mr. B.:* “ Opium intensifies all the capacities for thought, with all the emotional capabilities ; lifting the man to a higher plane of existence, where he may enjoy in panoramic perspective as it were, illusions no longer

negations in seeming but veritable realities rather. The votary has now become a child in sensibility, a

youth full-grown in vividness and splendor of concep tion, a more than man in copiousness of ideas and grasp of thought.” 4 . The emotional developments are as novel and in congruous as are the proper conceptual creations. Querulousness and irascibility, though native to the

man,recede for a space and give transient place to an amiable self-complacency , a self-satisfied disposition * Vide N . Y . Medical Times, Dr. Bulkley editor, 1853, for an au tobiography, which, if less pictorial in style than the “ Confessions," yet in the matter of fact certainly “ keeps probability in view .”

The Physiological Action of Opium .

61

that would maintain accord with everybody and every

thing. Flashy wit in turgid declamation (the “ rauca garrulitas” ) here breaks out, to expire perchance even

in the very utterance. Another scenic “ Paradise of Fools” has opened to the view ; yet through all these transitional stages of rhapsodic exaltations and ephe

meral inanities, the sense of personal identity is at no stage altogether effaced.

5 . A few hours at the longest having lapsed, sleep begins.

This may for a brief space be profound and

death -like, a “ consanguineus leti sopor," as indicated by stertor and a dropping of the nether jaw , or it may

be unquiet and fugitive at best, a hurried slumbering merely . The pattamaras (letter-carriers ) on their journeys from Lahore, having reached their halting stations, drop at once into a slumber which is pro

found only in the appearance ; woe to the wayfarer who carelessly disturbs them ! Not like the sleep on whose inventor theGovernor of Barataria so piously invokes a blessing is this opium -sleep, but rather a fitful yet oppressive somnolence, that leaves behind an aching brain , a fevered throat, and a languor and depression paralyzing to the whole body .

6. In sleep (but not with all) comes the dream .

This , as if through some spontaneity of working, takes shape and coloring less or more from the occu pationsand the musings of the day just gone,* when ,

however, the “ ruling passion ,” under all diversities * “ Simulacra lacessunt Hæc eadem animos nostros, quæ cum vigilamus.” — LUCRETIUS.

Opium .

62

of temperament or bias, is sure to come uppermost. The gamester is shuffling his cards once more, the stump-orator boils over in vociferous harangue, the miser gloats again over his coffered hivings, the

gourmand renews the feast at tables laden with appe tizing viands, the castle-builder awakes to raptures anew , in a “ château d'Espagne” his fancy has reared

and decorated, the enthusiast devotee bending before Superstition 's shrine, hails in rapturous ejaculation

the paradise of his dream where hope shall be ex hausted in fruition. Here too, libertinage finds its congenial atmosphere, but in enjoyments “ linguæ

reticenda modesta ,” for “ Les sensations d'un tel

réveur sur l'appareil génitale sont non -seulement voluptueuses,mais en rapport avec les tendences habi tielles” (Libermann ).

7. Such in its “ best estate” is the virginal paroxysm of the opium -dreamer; a spasmodic ecstasy, an illu sory enchantment, which in the recurrence becomes toned down to what has been termed a “ static equi

librium ,” that can never be transcended again by any effort or device. 8. The Bazaars and shops present a various and altogether a very repulsive picture.

In a company

some may be absorbed in their reveries and incogni zant of the scenes around them ; others grow mirth ful and loquacious, breaking out into cachinnations

the most absurd ,and all because they cannot help it ; others again , with pallid face and shrunken lips, are earnestly waiting in expectation of that excitement that shall dispel care andmelancholy , andmake them

The Physiological Action of Opium .

-

63

for a season oblivious of themselves. Fatuity bor dering on idiocy is the prominent feature around.

Madden, on making acquaintance with the thériakis,

remarked the glassy lustre and the incessant agitation of their eyes, the flushy hue of face, the swaying to and fro of the body in its unsteadiness, the ridiculous incoherency of their talk , and the extravagance of their mal-adroit gesticulations. 9 . In the New Court, London , the camp-ground of

a colony of foreigners, Chinese, Bengalese , Greeks, and others, is one of these opium -dens under the direction of Ya- Hi, a man eighty years old and himself an inveterate smoker, who makes the ordering of the nightly entertainment. Here in a close room

styled “ the Divan,” the air of which is enough to stifle a stranger, may be seen numerous visitors ar ranged squat around the tea-trays upon which their pipe-bowls rest, now indulging in vapid twaddle, now

relapsing into idiotic mutterings, with the accompani ment of a motion of the lower jaw , sheep -fashion , or

all may be quiet for the time, ready to break into mirthful extravagance at any instant - and for any or

no cause. These people confess their willingness to work all day for procuring the furtive but fugitive

enjoyment this receptacle holds out for the night. 10 . Certain amateur explorers in the mines of ex periment — all of course having specially in view “ the

general weal,” have recorded their sensations from making trial of opium . Dr. Madden then sojourning

at Constantinople visited the Thériaki Tchartchiffi

or Grand Bazaar — the Lunatic Asylum ,by some sin

64

Opiu . m

gular conjunction , stands fronting directly opposite partly with the view of taking notes,” but as much for making trial of the course, secundum artem , in his own person. After swallowing in succession several lozenges to the amount of 4 grains in all, he began to have an unwonted feeling of self-expansion cor poreally, while at the same time things as seen in

vision appeared in an exaggerated amplitude. Sin gularly indeed , so often as he opened his eyes the phantasmagorial figures would Ait off and vanish , to

return again and again . The doctor's anticipations were in the sequel fulfilled only very indifferently .

Dr. Macgowan experimented upon himself in China, and with more satisfaction . His sensations assimi

lated much to those that come of inhaling nitrous oxide.* * Note. In Winslow 's Journal of Psychology, 1859, is described in its details a very curious phenomenal case, that of a lady ,who, for an

organic sexualmalady, had recourse occasionally to morphine. The case is the more remarkable in consideration of the extreme dispro

portion of symptoms to the inconsiderable amount of dose ,which was 34 grains only.

CHAPTER VII. THE PATHOLOGICAL ACTION OF OPIUM . “ Corpore languor inest, vexant insomnia, vixque Ossa tegit macies, nec juvat ora cibus.” _ Ovid .

“ They are drunken ,but notwith wine ; they stagger, but not with strong-drink .” — ISAIAH .

1. “ Ogni medaglia ha suo rovescio" — the picture has its reverse as well as its obverse face. Leaving the

subordinate features to special occasion while we di rect our attention to the salient points rather as they

jut out upon the pathway, we shall soon perceive we have indeed a via Dolorosa to traverse ,with only here and there a gleam of sunshine to relieve the abiding gloom .

2. The morbific leaven , subtle and intangible in its primary evolution ,acquires as it pervades the system a cumulative force , in this respect transcending ar senic, mercury , lead, indeed every substance whatever

of known zymotic energy . The reaction , whether evolved obscurely or outbursting as with a shock , maturing it may be in three weeks, or perchance not under three years, will culminate in a crisis some

time, as inevitable as it is portentous.*

3. The organs that primarily and mainly feel the * “ Sera tamen tacitis Pæna venit pedibus.” — TIBULLUS. 6* (65 )

66

Opium .

recoil are , the brain with the spinal cord , and the great centre of alimentation ,the stomach . Tardieu found in his autopsies sometimes a congestion of the

cerebral channels, or else the condition of pulmonary apoplexy, or again both symptoms in conjunction .

The peculiar excitement which the brain experiences, though approximating in some points to inebriation from alcohol, sustains towards delirium tremens only

an analogical relation (Hobson). In the long course nervous tension becomes obtunded and relaxed , from

non -oxygenation of the blood the heart is overloaded and the pulmonary vessels get sluggish , whence come palpitations and dyspnea, with oppressive an helations, so as almost to preclude exercise even the most moderate. Erethism of the fauces — a sense of

searing it may be (Trousseau) - occurs in progress , depravation of appetite, the precursor of confirmed

dyspepsia, ensues,and in the end every organ almost has become involved and every function perverted . An evidence not uncommon of a vitiated appetite is

a partiality to saccharine substances.

4. Another organ with complex sympathies, the liver , is a common sufferer, being sometimes stimu lated to an excessive reaction, but oftener relapsing into an established torpor. A case of mark is con

tributed by H . F . Quackenbos, M . D .,of New York. 5 . Miss P., a lady of easy condition in life, who

died eventually at the early age of 26 , began the use of opium ten years before that event, and for themit igation of suffering caused by morbid obstruction . The routine life of this person was singular in various

The Pathological Action of Opium .

OA

respects. At sunrise , when people generally are get ting up for the day, she went to bed ; about sunset she had her breakfast, and her dinner at midnight.

Laudanum was the preparation in use, of which she took altogether for the day three wine-glasses, the first at 9 o 'clock , which acted always as a sedative

against the shivery agitations of the morning , the second preceded the breakfast her first meal for the day, and the third was had about 11 P.M ., when she

was ready for the salon. In the daytime she would lounge about, wearing away the hours in a sort of half-stupor, answering a question with a labored grunt, as if comprehending only one-half and indif ferent to the rest, and impatient like as one aroused from a recent doze ; but when the deep hours of the

night had arrived the transformation in her entire ap pearance was as if she had just come from some Ar

mida's bower, when she shone out upon the admiring throng as with a meteor-blaze. A necroscopic exam ination revealed the organ more immediately asso

ciated with her decline, the liver, now of a purplish brown hue, enorniously hypertrophied (the biggest liver the doctor had ever seen), and so extremely in durated, that on accidentally falling from the hand to the floor it sounded more like a stone. This lady's

death was accelerated by thoracic inflammation, the cause of which was exposure after going from a co

tillon -party . 6 . As a sequela to hepatic disorder a persistent

vis inertiæ of the various organs is ere long estab lished, and a hebetude of the primæ via unresponsive

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Opium .

to purgatives, and verging to a habitual constipation .

This sealing-up of the alvine channels may hold for a fortnight; or, if the wonted allowance has been inter mitted (commonly by three days — Day), there is an alternating change, a relaxing .of the intestinal con striction , a colliquative diarrhea by a vicarious effort

sets in , and stercoraceous bile loaded with scybalous concretions has free expulsion . An occasional con

comitant, debilitating in the extreme whenever it occurs , is a free seminal drain (Macgowan ). 7. Change in the entire contour becomes painfully apparent.* Instead of the“ complexionally pleasant”

softness of hue such as arsenic is said to impart to the cheeks of the Styrian damsels, there is a bronzed complexion and a rigidity of skin like as of parch

ment, and a tendency to rigors also , unrelieved , un less occasionally , and by an intense sudation setting in . The eye kindles to flash only , then shrinks again into upon vacancy, and the .once voice has passed into a husky

in a momentary glint its characteristic gaze sonorous ring of the squeak .

8 . An incidental (not uncommon ) symptom is a general hyperæsthesia,and this being fairly established , the nervous susceptivity may become so acute that not so much as an articulated sound, not the jar from a footstep, shall be endurable. Indeed , the physical

torment present seems at times as if an aggregation of all conceivable tortures in their totality . Not the fiery thrills from tic douloureux, not the lancinating * « Macies hebentes occupat artus Refugere oculi.” – PROPERTIUS.

The Pathological Action of Opium .

69

pains of cancer can hold comparison, for they, with their exacerbations, have their alternating relaxations ; the pangs from opium hold one as with the grip of a

vise. Twinges as from electric sparks shoot along the nerve-fibrils, or again flame-flashes radiate from circumference to centre and from spine to surface

again . Under such combination ofphysical pressure body and mind with it succumb inevitably.

9 . Privation . — If for an extended period (as among the impoverished classes in China) the wonted supply is no longer, or only very irregularly procurable , glan dular degenerescence, rickets, a hydropic tendency, or albuminuria will likely ensue (Hill, Oxley). Such privation , indeed, in the view of some observers, as

Pidduck and Little , may jeopardize the very life. A confirmatory instance is from Chardin . A young Persian having a journey to make through a waste and scantily -populated territory, and where supplies of any sort were not to be counted on ,had proceeded only half-way when his provisional stock of opium

had become exhausted. There was but one alterna tive,to wheel horse aboutand put back with all speed for home again ; but in the effort he sunk in a fatal

collapse. Of this narrative it is safe to say at a ven ture , “ Se non è vero , è bene trovato.”

10 . The culmination of suffering there is yet to be named — the agrypnia or insomnia that must be en

dured. In place of the “ heavy honey -dew of slum ber,” come “ Slumbers that are not sleep, But a continuance of enduring thought;"

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Opium .

when the lone sufferer, with brain distraught and eyeballs as if glazed, must endure and endure hour

upon hour, unremittedly agitated and hopelessly be reft of repose,* until forced in the exhaustion of his

agony to exclaim with Sigismunda, “ Oh, for that quiet sleep which knows no waking !" II. Sleep, if indeed procurable, is never equable and refreshing, but rather agitative and disquieting ; meanwhile comes “ The Dream ,

That mystical usurper of the mind ,

The spectres which no exorcism can bind.” +

The satirist Scarron , quondam -husband of De Main tenon, who for years had been habituated to an eve ning dose of laudanum , declares in an auto -epitaph written by anticipation , that his first night in the grave was his first night of sleep .

12 . At one period in his life so perseveringly tor mented was De Quincey with a diablerie of night spectres, that he declared despairingly he would

“ never, never sleep again ;" and indeed for years, even after a long intermission , he could get but three

hours at most, and then only past midnight. Mrs . M . of W . New York , a woman now sixty years old , who has used morphine (5 grains for the day) now less than two years, even thus early

sleeps but irregularly, occupying herself for the most * “ Vacuus somno noctem , quam longa, peragens.” - Ovid.

† “ Obvia Tisiphone, serpentibus undique compta , Et flammis , nunc sæva quatit ter verbera pænæ ." - - ÆNEID , vi.

The Pathological Action of Opium.

71

part with noisy soliloquy for the edification of her family in the night-hours , and diversifying the day

with visits to the office of an electro -galvanic præs tigiator in the neighborhood.

13. The erotic force of Opium . — Does this agent, upon repeated use, operate as an aphrodisiac, or as an anaphrodisiac, or is it simply neutral? The ques tion has been variously mooted. In Eastern Asia

the positive belief obtains, as appears from Cleyer : “ Ad venerem enim ciere integræ nationes usum norunt, et in hunc se adhibent.”

A corresponding

idea is entertained among the ladies of Turkey, as we learn from a note of Jahn : “ Fæminæ Turcicæ opio viros incitare in contubernium solent.” If the orgasm - favored , as the Chinese suppose, by the ad

mixture of saffron — is really enhanced in the early use, a premature exhaustion may be expected in the sequel. According to Dr.Macgowan an abiding im potentia is the finale, and Brodie and Astley Cooper

have expressed similar convictions. De Pouqueville and De Tott also ascertained concerning thethériakis

of the Levant, that they are habitually tormented with a satyriasis as abortive as it is insatiable. Sev

eral of Dr. Palmer's cases also appear to indicate a growing indifference to the peculiar marital relation and a prospective dissolution of the bonds. 14. A case, as untoward in progress as it was

gloomy in the end, will illustrate some points in

pathogenesis. The particulars, derived upon direct personal inquiry, are communicated by a familiar

friend (that was) of the patient.

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Opium .

15. Dr. C ., of the Genesee Valley, whose death at the age of 47 occurred two years since , had been an

opium -eater eleven years. Diphtheria (for this seems to be the proper name) appearing at an early period, had seriously impaired a constitution originally frail,

leaving behind a nervous adynamia and a gastric de rangement that had degenerated into a settled dys pepsia . To combat the existing gastralgia , and at

the instance of a brother -doctor,morphine was put on trial, and thereafter continued for the rest of his

life, though the relief anticipated never came. The patient grew melancholic and morose as time wore on, insisting he must die soon , and that the doctors were but ignoramuses, comprehending nothing of his maladies. For the last few years the average pro fessedly consumed was over one drachm for the week ,

besides the very considerable leeway -reserve always to be calculated on in such cases.

Constipation ,

early confirmed, became a permanent and most an noying symptom , over which purgatives exerted but

a qualified efficacy, and which the syringe only scantily relieved. Insomnia was the rule, and sleep ,

such as it was, brought no refreshing. The eyewore the peculiar dazy glitter, a basilisk -lustre almost, such

as the person describing had never seen the like of, or would willingly see again . The fauces became aph thous, a brownish sordes loaded the rugose tongue,

and incessant twinges in the stomach kept the man in a sort of perpetual motion. As the months passed the patient got more and more intractable . At times he would be around, with vial in pocket, so

The Pathological Action of Opiuin .

73

as to have his stimulus at free command, and who

ever does this will renew his dose without stint, bon gré malgré ; or if for prudential reasons put upon strict allowance, feeble and impotent as he was he

would work himself into a frenzy, begging for his morphine with moans and sobs ; or again , assuming theminatory attitude, he would denounce his friends

for their barbarities with reproaches and imprecations. On a certain day (nor was this, as appears, a solitary instance) he must have swallowed what, upon cost

estimate (and as was his admission to a professional friend), an entire drachm ofmorphine. 16 . This child in sensitiveness ,this monomaniac in

wayward capriciousness, became in his last months so thoroughly restive under any and every restraint

devised, that an allowance ofwhiskey was judged ex pedient. The drink was given in measured quantity at first , and in alternation with his morphine, but afterward conjointly with it, and finally was supplied ad libitum . The “ vulnus in venis” had penetrated too deeply even for the plastic hand of a Machaon

to reach. “ Vraiment l'homme ne meurt pas, il se tue.”

17. A case from Dr. C . H . Wood illustrates the impetuosity of this morbid appetite , and the conse quent inveteracy of the habit. C . a cordwainer, æt. 35, having suffered dysenteric attacks repeatedly (but

not from intemperate living), had after various dis

couragements sought relief in morphine. The dose , very inconsiderable at first, and but gradually advan

cing, had got to be a stationary one, a drachm for the

Opium . week, but now and then just twice that. Themalady declined so as to occasion little trouble, but not so the urgency for the remedy. Trials at a change repeat

edly undertaken were as often baffled . The patient, sustained by his adventitious support, was happy as a lord, and equal to a full day's work at any time; but so surely as the supply was intermitted for any cause, such was the præcordial distress he must take to his bed and have the doctor's help right off. The

skin had finally taken a deep icteric hue, as though it had been dyed in saffron. These victims of habit come and go, appearing and disappearing again , chacun à son tour.

CHAPTER VIII. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ACTION OF OPIUM . “ The dreary void ,

The leafless desert of the mind, The waste of feelings unemployed.” — BYRON .

“ C' est une atonie dégoutante, une prostration absolue de toutes les facultés et de toutes les énergies de l'âme." - ABBÉ Huc.

1. The moral aspect presented by the opium -eater

is that in which the negative qualities rather are what stand out in relief. The will-power being now pros trate though indeed self-consciousness has survived, the mind appears sunk in a somnolent and impassive quiescence. Under this spiritual thraldom all the generous sympathies shrink within themselves and

fade, the relish for society and its enjoyments is ex tinguished, and the abject sufferer courses along “ spe pendulus horæ ,” buffeted by wind and wave, without

power to shape his course , without resolution to make the effort, drifting towards a lurid and desolate shore,

to be thenceforward cut off from the living world as by a Styx nine times intervening. 2. This phase of moral obtuseness Huc adverts to thus : “ The spectacle of the family brought to ex

treme distress, the cries of wife and children, extorted

by the pangs of hunger and the pinchings of cold , ( 75 )

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Opium.

fail to revive in the parent so much perhaps as a momentary recognition. Such stolidity under abase ment is less an index of callous indifference than an

implied conviction of helplessness and a settled gloom

too deep for Hope's cheering ray to pierce • For a mortal coldness o'er the soul like a death -damp has stole on ; It cannot feel for others' woes, it dare not dream its own.'

“ The days of the opium - eater (as observes the

Hon. Mr. Tiffany, of the India service ) pass along , divided between sloth and remorse , and when night with its pall shuts in the day, again he falls , palsied and unresisting, into the trail of the sorceress that

mocks with her finger as she beckons him on.” 3. “ The pernicious effects that come of an unre strained and excessive devotion to opium (thus writes Prof. C . A . Lee), be the purpose that of obliterating the sense of the present and actual, or of creating a forced and exaggerated ideal of existence, are scarcely

liable in the description to any overdrawing.

The

opium -devotee is at once the most abject of slaves as

he is the most hopeless of unfortunates. Happy only in the sphere of dreamy illusions, he rushes along towards that slippery verge where the fancifulmerges

into thedark real,and then he tumbles irrecoverably . The moral sense has become deranged and diseased even out of proportion to the physical deterioration ; all the worst propensities of the man , sedulously con

cealed so long as the mind continued normal, now work up to the surface, exposed in all the grossness of their deformity ,and thenceforward ‘ shadows, clouds and darkness' brood over and around .

The Psychological Action of Opium .

77

“ There is no darkness like the cloud of mind.' “ The wilds of enchantment, all vernal and bright In the days of delusion , by fancy combined ,

Ahandon the soul like a dream of the night, And leave but a desert behind." "

4. Every case of opium -eating bears marks of some

generic affiliation to other cases, yet each presents peculiar diversities. Here follow two, kindly fur

nished by Prof. J. Ordronaux, M . D., of New York . 5. Mrs. L., a widow of about 60 years, in tempera ment sanguino -bilious, who had long been a sufferer from uterine prolapsus, came under observation as an opium -eater in 1854, presenting symptoms of a

somewhat singular rather than of an aggravated type. The indications of general health were fair, there

being no dyspepsia,no anæmia and emaciation. The patient, a small eater, had always a good appetite, which she would frequently satisfy by preference on the coarse greasy food of the kitchen , such as pork and cabbage or fried-liver, in preference to the deli cacies of the family -table , such as her wealth abund

antly sufficed to procure . She was also , and had been , a large consumer of ale , and besides she par took of brandy twice or thrice a day, but in what

quantities is not precisely known. 6. Upon this force-system nutrition was maintained

at a good standard and average health was kept up ; nor, during an acquaintanceship of seven years' con tinuance, did she experience any symptom of severe

disease, other than from an occasional diarrhoea with 7*

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Opium .

painless watery discharges and some nausea, though accustomed to go abroad in all sorts of weather.

7. Loth to acknowledge her habit of using the narcotic in any such quantity as could possibly affect the intellect, Mrs. L . admitted, nevertheless, that she did take a dose every night, following, as she said, the prescription of a physician . It was admitted by the domestics that now and then an overdose had been swallowed , but through some mistake purely,

as perhaps in the measuring ; and such was the ex planation of certain strange symptoms occasionally remarked. Usually she began the evening with an ounce of McMunn ; but how many repetitions were made does not definitely appear, for she would com plain of sleeplessness , and so occupy herself with a book far into the night until drowsiness came. Once asleep, she presented the symptoms of moderate nar

cotism . On being awakened in the morning (a thing always difficult and slow ), her eyes would open with a glassy stare, somewhat distorted as from strabismus, the heart palpitating and the lungs laboring, so that the face would get bathed in a profuse perspiration , lasting through the hour for dressing. Always aware of her peculiar appearance and expression while as yet en déshabillé, she was careful to seclude herself

from the family until a cup of black coffee had put her en rapport.

8. Dr. O . had known the patient to go abroad before the narcotic oppression was entirely dispelled, when

she would display so entire a forgetfulness of her surroundings as not even to recognize the place where

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79

she was at the time. Again she would insist that she had been to some locality or quarter she had really

never seen as yet, professing perhaps that her husband (now dead) had told her this and that about such

all mere impromptu invention. If corrected in any way, she would manifest an utter intolerance of all contradiction, as that she herself ought to know about

things, and who indeed should know better?

The

moral nature too had undergone change. Suspicious

of near friends, and misconstruing the plainest acts, she would affirm or deny anything and everything, butbelieve nothing. Declarations the most inconsist

ent, falsehoods the most palpable, she would one day asseverate to dispute them the next. The thoughts

in the paroxysmal state were but disjecta membra , disjointed figments of a perverted imagination , con

ceived without forethought, and as capriciously dis missed again .*

In truth , memory, conscience, and

judgment appeared quiescent, as if in a sleep, except

when under the reviving influence of those extra restoratives, coffee and brandy, with snuff for a coad jutor of which she had become an inordinate con sumer.

9. Throughout the period the various emunctories appear to have been active, though somewhat abnor mally , as was evident in a certain fætor attaching to

the pulmonary exhalations and the cutaneous secre tions. The demise was in 1866 . 10 . Dr. M ., a physician of recognized ability as he * “ Quod petiit sprevit ; repetit quod nuper omisit.” — HORACE.

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Opium .

had been, became addicted to opium for no ascer tained cause, but to what extent did not certainly

appear. The very fact of using was itself carefully concealed by the subject,though obvious to gentlemen competent to judge, in view of the narcotic oppression

under which he was often seen laboring. If suffering at any time under physical ailments, he would never, upon consulting his professional colleagues, allude for once to the primary cause, but would mask every form of indisposition under that most conveniently accommodative of terms- neuralgia . (Neuralgia has been the scape-goat for a multitude of opium -sins.)

II. The demoralizing effects of the vice were in the

presentcase conspicuousand unmistakable. No sooner did opium enter in than conscientiousness walked out. No longer appreciating themoral value of truth , this man would falsify over and over statements he

had deliberately made, exhibiting a perversion of spirit that the most cautious contradiction only ag gravated and intensified. One day, having invited a

brother (a personal friend too that was) to his office, he there, in the presence of two strangers, proceeded to upbraid him on the ground of having made at tempts towards undermining his professional standing, though indeed the incongruity and, in instances, the

absurdity of his prescriptions had been the occasion of privately calling in physicians for the protection of

his patients against mischance, as also in a manner

to shield him from suspicious surmises. In progress he grew to be so indifferent to his responsibilities and so careless of his duties that friends began to

The Psychological Action of Opium .

81

suspect a lurking insanity. Our subject (as is re ported of him ), in some way or by some means sur

mounted his habit ultimately , and recovered in a fair

degree his former reputation. The condition ofmind as here described lasted for about two years. 12. Among opium -eaters has been observed an oc

casional tendency to some form of mania. For the years 1861–66 , there were counted up at the Pennsyl vania Hospital for the Insane, 35 men and 36 of the other sex coining under this class, and by the year following the proportion had considerably increased. Dr. Gray, Superintendent of the Utica Asylum

for

fifteen years , writes, that during his administration , although cases applying have generally been rejected,

yet there have been received there of insane people as inmates, who were also confirmed opium -eaters,

15 persons, all of whom , with a single exception, were women ; and further, that 7 of them recovered of their principal malady (for the opium was stopped

of course ), 4 made no improvement, and 5 died . 13. This proclivity to insanity which opium fosters

may take the suicidal shape, though the determination , but half-formed or only inceptive perhaps, may pass by like the transient cloud.

There was a Canton

gentleman of mature age known to Dr. Parker,who in a conversation expressed a longing for death as a deliverance from his bondage, but who, “ weak and irresolute ,” had faltered as was apparent in the criti cal hour.* Death , but faintly sketched and dimly * “ Mortem sæpe precans, mortem quoque deprecans idem .” OviD .

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Opium .

shadowed out, as viewed in the far perspective, ex

pandson reaching the foreground to the exaggerated proportions of an ogre. “ Pleasures, hopes, affections gone, The wretch must bear, and yet live on."

14 . A case with a melancholy termination , pub

lished originally by Dr. Barnes,* is with his permis sion here reproduced in briefer form . The patient,

Rev . G . W . Brush , of good natural physique, was also a man of superior mental endowments. Having suffered for a time from an occasional diarrhæal flux and a scirrhous tongue besides, he by-and-by (as

professionally advised) took to opium , going on by littles and for months, until what had been designed for occasional use only had become a sternly-fixed necessity . Sixteen years, as the subject reluctantly confessed, had now gone by, and the dose by this had grown to 12 grains of morphine per day, and for

extras to “ 20 or more," an expression which , as was afterwards learned, was to be interpreted “ 20 or a good deal more.” (Equivocation and prevarication ,

humiliating characteristics as they are in every asso ciation , seem to attach to opium -eaters by a sort of

indefeasible claim .) Mr. B., now grown distrustful of his intellectual gifts in view ofhis degradation, and nervously apprehensive of a waning clerical influence,

would repine and mourn over the past, accounting his life thus far a failure , withoutbetter promise. An effort once put forth towards a change had been dis

* VideOpium : L. Barnes, M .D., Delaware, Ohio, 1868.

The Psychological Action of Opium .

couraged by a “ diarrhoea setting in like a flood” (as was his expression ), which bore him seemingly into the very jaws of death . Anxious to make a new trial as proposed, he proceeded by very considerable re ductions, though getting weaker and more haggard as the days wore on . Spectres and other ugly visions tormented him , and, what is not usual, in the daytime

also , distorted faces grinning from beneath the floods of ingulfing waters, eyes as of fiends gleaming and flashing from out of their oceanic caves .

15. From November, 1866, a year had passed amid chagrin and shame and doubt and remorse, during which period he visited the office to report himself and for advice a hundred times certainly . Occasion ally, yet in a cautious and circumlocutory way, be would advert to the dire though possible alternative - self-destruction . Well posted in all the pathology of the habit (as is common with the opium -eating

class ), he was able to foresee the liabilities and in a manner to anticipate consequences. The dose had got down to two grains, but this was soon varied from to meet the temporarily -recurring diarrhæa ; but soon after, under the administration of arsenic , anti mony, and abies, and without quinine or brandy

either, strength and energy appeared to be reviving. Subsequently the patient professed to have reduced himself to a single grain and a quarter, expressing at the time his confidence in the course and a hopeful issue. All this while , however, he was wavering through habitual infirmity of purpose, and on two

occasions in particular he had prepared himself with

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Opium.

an extra three - grains, once for the lecture, and again

for an interview with his counsellor. The doctor having now been called away for a week, did not meet the invalid as he had expected awaiting his return . A day passed by, and then another “ The third — with dirges due in sad array, Slow through the churchway -path they saw him borne.”

16 . Coleridge,whose soul may be said to have been in a perpetual eclipse, appears on one occasion to have premeditated suicide, if indeed (what is doubtful at best) he was ever capable of working himself up to a fixed purpose of any kind. On a certain day it was when he had gone without his opium for twenty four hours, as he was sauntering along Bristol docks,

having on some trivial pretext excused his Fidus Achates or Man-Friday , he slipped into an apothe cary's to have his laudanum -bottle filled ; but some how he “ let slip the occasion ,” as was usual with

him whenever the emergency had come. 17. To the extravagant employment of opium by the Chinese promiscuously as a proximate cause , may undoubtedly be ascribed the extensive preva lence of infanticide. In Fuh -Kien ( says the Rev. Mr.

Abeel), forty per-cent. of the female infants are sacri ficed by their unnatural mothers, and Dr. Cumming found in a neighboring district a laxity of morals

even more saddening. Poverty is the specious and ready plea in extenuation of guilt ; gambling, and licentiousness its concomitant, reveal the more oc

cult but no less potent cause, the slow -consuming poison there incessantly at work .

The Psychological Action of Opium .

85

18. The Malay race are somewhat peculiarly affected under the influence, becoming impetuous and irasci

ble, vindictive in their dispositions and reckless of consequences (Parker). In the Javan rendezvous where the dissolute are accustomed to gather for holding their orgies, the authorities have armed sen

tinels stationed outside the doors for the purpose of repressing any attempted violence, with orders to strike down and even kill any dangerously -turbulent person present, — so saith Libermann . 19 . This spirit of malicious rancor or fell revenge

is sometimes manifested in a very singular fashion among the people of the Celebes, as was witnessed once by Browne in the city of Maccassar. When a man has become for any cause tired of existence, as from adverse experience in business-transactions, in gratitude and neglect on the part of relations, or after

a criminal or otherwise vicious course of life, instead of committing suicide out-and -out, seeing that such act' is held in that country to be dishonorable, he compasses his own destruction by an indirect but no less certain method. Having prepared himself before hand by stimulation upon opium (opium and hashisch together, Cabanis says), he sallies forth , kris (a sharp

dagger) in hand, with a furious impetuosity, assailing and stabbing at any and every one that comes within reach . Upon this is raised the general cry, in which

all who hear it join , — “ Amók ! amok !— Kill ! kill !" and the reprobate is pursued with knives and spears and weapons of every sort, until he is despatched. Such a practice was observed also by Lord Macartney.

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Opium .

20 . To the opium -bazaars,* those socialistic gol gothas in the heart of the frontier empire “ Where Revel calls, and Laughter, vainly loud, False to the heart distorts the hollow cheek , To leave the flagging spirit doubly weak”

mustweturn ,would wesee in their sheer nakedness the

excesses of depravity, the putrid sloughings of moral defilement. At the shops above ground, in Amoy for instance, just as in the gilded caverns of subterranean Broadway,you encounter singing -women and dancing girls, whose facile ingratiativeness, with the super addition of a tinselly personnel, serves as a “ standing invitation” to voluptuaries of all ages, from the juvenes

imberbes, to whom dissipation is an untried novelty , up to the veteran gray-beards, who fain would “ lag superfluous on the stage,” when the zest of enjoyment, though not the passion for it, has passed away. These cyprians of an Oriental breed mingle in the scenes familiarly with the rest, imbibing their samshu with the complacency of old stagers, or, for change of scene, withdrawing a space to have a whiff from the opium pipe. Detached from the saloon proper, but com municating with it, is an interior receptacle— a living

morgue in fact — and to this the inmates when reduced to the state of stupefaction are transferred, there to

finish their stertorous sleep, and there to wake again to the horrors of the morning. The exhibitions of * « Théâtres des ris et des pleurs, Vous nous faites voir comment voisins

Sont nos plaisirs et nos chagrins." — BENSÉRADE.

The Psychological Action of Opium . self-abandonment, depravity , and wretchedness com bined, so conspicuous in these half-way houses to wards Pandemonium , have over and over the attesta tions of observers out of every class, government officials,missionaries, sojourning tourists, and gentle men of the Profession as well; and the scenes noted by such are thus alluded to by the Hon . Mr. Martin :

“ Here spectres of fearful vision haunt and distract

the mind ; the light that once emanated from heaven is now converted into a gloom of Tartarean black

ness , and death reigns around.

The opium -shops

such as I visited are the veriest types of hell upon earth .” , “ Opium -smoking (such is a declaration of the Medical Mission at Peking ) is the great barrier to all progress , spiritual as well as temporal, among the Chinese ; a barrier far more formidable, in that it excludes all hope of a social resurrection , than was ever the Great Wall to the Tartar invaders." “ What warre so cruelle , and what siege so sore ,

To bring the sowle into captivitie, As that fierce appetite doth fain supplie !”

.

CHAPTER IX . OPIUM - LITERATURE

IN

THE REFLEX

VIEW .

“ Tibi cum fauces urit sitis, aurea quæris Pocula ? Num esuriens fastidis omnia præter Pavonem rhombumque ?” – HORACE .

“ True I talk of dreams,

Which are the children of an idle brain , Begot of nothing but vain fantasy ." — ROMEO AND JULIET.

1. The intellectual atmosphere engendered by the fumes of opium is but a confused commixture of sun

shine and cloud, which, when intervening between the eye that surveys and the object contemplated ,

presents a picture as exaggerated or distorted in its proportions as it is confused and grotesque in its col

orings. The transformation is as great as we observe in Abou Hassan, son of the Bagdad merchant, in his metamorphosis as Caliph, now giving audience from

the throne to arrogant emirs and obsequious viziers, or again feasting in palatial gardens,with Sunshine,

and Coral-Lips, and Heart's-Delight, the caterers to his pleasures and his banquet-companions. 2. Transport the man to a newly -created visionary

sphere ,as author he must,in the nature of things, re appear in his novel thought-creations and musings,

a veritable evolution of his proper self. The contrary view would involve that Persian paradox, soul dual

(88)

Opium -Literature in the Reflex View

89

ism ; the idea of the soul alternately swayed between

Ormuzd the good principle, and Ahriman the bad. Prof. N . Porter has enunciated the true doctrine in this compact sentence : “ For the individual to under

take to hide himself behind themask , is simply im possible ; the features of the original will certainly shine through , and invariably .” Even of dramatic representation , in which actor and the character personated are for the occasion blended , the same

parallelism

holds.

No more could Kemble or

Macready have exhibited the same Hamlet, than they could have reproduced the Garrick in his

proper identity . 3. So of the life, which is but the outgrowth proper of the spiritus intus, thought and resolve energized into action. We reverence the “ Great Teacher," our

ideal exemplar “ in all manner of conversation and godliness," for the " sufficient reason" (as Leibnitz would have had it ), that in Him the exemplifications of spiritual culture and growth were so harmoniously

congruent with his didactic utterances. When the Great Captain made appeal to his army, as it was de

ploying within the shadows of the Pyramids, in the memorable words — “ Du haut de ces pyramides qua rante siècles vous contemplent, From the summits of yonder pinnacles there are looking down this

day upon your exploits the generations of forty cen turies,” — was there a soldier in those ranks but for the moment imagined himself as marshalled into the very presence of those generations ?

All dis

claimers to the contrary notwithstanding, is there 8*

Oprum .

90

a superficial reader only ,who, following the “ childe” in his wanderings, continues all the while uncogni zant of the fact, that he has in company the veritable original, the aberrant youth whilom a dweller in Al

bion's Isle, “ Who né in Virtue's ways did take delight ?” Goldsmith in the “ Traveller" is Goldsmith persona

propria ; on every page of the “ Table Talk ” the con

versational poet has unwittingly made some etching of the melancholic enthusiast :

“ 'Tis Nature pictured too severely true.” 4 . Let the man deliberately yield himself up to the mastery of a depraved appetite , the soul must per

force become contaminated from the festering virus,

themoral sense will be perverted , the finer sensibili ties and nobler aspirations will decline and die out,

and life's aim become erratic and purposeless, until existence itself seems shrunken to the diminutive

proportions of a troglodyte semi-creation. Here and there indeed fancy may kindle into an ephemeral glow and genius sparkle once more in some fitful resusci tation ; but in the stead of the joyous sunbeam glo riously shining around in its serene effulgence, there will have succeeded a vapory ignis -fatuus with its

blinky flashiness, a phosphorescent fire glimmering athwart the murky horizon , “ That leads to bewilder and dazzles to blind.”

5. Out of deference to that impersonal juridicist and

literary arbiter elegantiarum ,“ Common Fame," which

Opium -Literature in the Reflex View .

91

in its exultant admiration would so persistently hold up and keep before the public view asmodel-casts of intellectualacumen and ästhetic taste the Aristarchus

and the Trismegistus of their tribe, De Quincey and Coleridge, they are here reintroduced in their proper presentable characters. So long as a jejune subtility of thought shall command distinction by force of

style -ornamentation, or tenuity of fabric shall offer in compensation an “ endless thread of verbosity," so long shall these magnates in transcendental criticism continue to be recognized as star-actors on the lists

of the dramatis persone . The true key to their spec ulations must be searched for in their biographies . 6 . De Quincey made his first essay upon opium during his student-life at Oxford. Some gastric de rangement, sheltered under that broad -shouldered patronymic, dyspepsia, offered a plausible excuse ; but back of this a more cogent incitement was at work , the longing felt for some sort of artificial excitement for occasions, and particularly in anticipation of the

Saturday -evening opera. His maximum for the day , 8000 drops, was attained by the eighth year — a nom inal and putative rather than a precisely definitemeas ure, as appears in a declaration recently made by his quondam -friend Sinclair, who had accompanied De Quincey time and again to the apothecary 's in Edin

burgh where stands Scott's monument, to see him toss

off a wine- glass of laudanum and with a sang-froid as if the draught had been mere water.

7. The autobiographer and essayist, author of “ Sus

piria de Profundis” (ex Profundis is meant), as also of

Opium .

92

“ Letters to Young Men ," and the rest, was wont to

herald every fresh volume of his “ farrago libellorum ” with the pretentious announcement, “ By Thomas De Quincey,Author of Confessions ofan English Opium Eater.” On every successive title -page, along with the conscious confession to an overshadowing infirm ity , is thus paraded a palpable yearning after a noto

riety that should pre-occupy the public curiosity ,* rather than a precatory appeal, in arrest of judgment, to a lenient public sympathy. “ Is this a guide to

them that sit in darkness, an instructor of the foolish ?” He that “ gropeth at noonday as in the night” ren ders but a dubious protection against the moral titu bations of inexperienced youth ,who, ifwalking blindly, appear peradventure less blind than their leader.

Quousque tandem ? 8. “ Shall gentle Coleridge pass unnoticed here, To turgid ode and humid stanza dear pa

S. T. Coleridge, a Cambridge student in 1796 , having been confined for someweeks (bed-ridden as his own account was), for ædema of the knees, with rigidity of the same, found his solace in laudanum . The suggestion had been made by a fellow Cantab .

The first dose, 20 drops (a bold and ominous setting out truly), produced an effect so satisfactory as to en courage the repeated use . There appears, however , to have been a letting up not long after, for in 1800

he thus writes to a friend : “ I have my health now , * « Digito monstrari, et dicier, · Hic est!

Pro nihilo pendes ?” — Persius.

Opium -Literature in the Reflex View .

93

restored perfectly .” Only four years from this he is well-nigh broken down , having succumbed to his habit beyond retracing, for now he had reached his high -water line, going at the rate of a pint for 372 days. On some of these days he used up, as was known, a whole pint. Like the elixir-vitæ man , Para

celsus, his prototype in this matter, whichever way he went or wherever he tarried , the laudanum -vial was his regular compagnon de poche. 9 . To have an appreciative view of this dreamy sen timentalist in his alternations of indulgence and pen

itential regrets, we have simply to refer to the glean

ings and garnerings as served up by his “ nextfriend” and most estimable confidant, Joseph Cottle, Esq. “ Oh , Joseph Cottle !— (Phoebus, what a name

To fill the speaking-trump of future fame!" )

and we have our subject presented in his pure un dress, to be microscopically anatomized with a per

tinacity truly Boswellian. Here emerges into view the transcendentalist ex integro, Sinon -like, “ Fidens animi et in utrumque paratus,”

ready with palliatory excuses for stealthily indulging an unbridled appetite while affecting the merit of a severe self-abnegation ; one day discoursing from the pulpit upon celestial themes, the next, by an easy

transition, junketing upon a biscuit and a bottle of brandy, or hobnobbing with a chum over a brace of

port. One time, after the big doses had become es tablished, under the consciousness of a spirit dis

. quieted within , he delivers himself in a jeremiad after

94

:

Opium .

this sort ; “ I have learned what sin is ; sin, that is to

say, against an infinitely great and imperishable ob ject, the soul of man !" 10. This soi-disant ethicist and quixotic epicurean ,

pseudo -penitent and rampant voluptuary combined, who could talk of opium as “ an accursed thing en tailing evils worse than death ,” yet, as if resolved on

straining physical endurance to its extreme tension , seemed bent on making a ubiquitous acquaintance with narcotics and stimuli of every name. Taking no warnings from his experiences with a single poison , baleful to him as that was, he must needs have

a trial of bang,hyoscyamus, and nitrous-oxide withal.

That a man thus " everything by turns and nothing long," who in his every -day life was as “ unstable as water,” that one who, when unable so much as to

rule his own spirit, should arrogate the office of spir itual director to youth in “ Essays towards the Form

ation of Fixed Principles in Politics, Morals, and Religion ” — themes than which nonemore profound can engage the contemplative mind,and all under the pretentious title of “ Friend” — verily all this conveys to the chance-reader the apprehended suspicion , that philosophy may by possibility be travestied in sonor

ous periods of themock -burlesque. 11. As representative exponents of contrarieties in

the realm of poesy, Byron and Coleridge may be set in advantageous juxtaposition. “ Genevan ichor, Or some such other spiritual liquor,"

(so saith Leigh Hunt) fired the muse of the one, .

Opium -Literature in the Reflex View .

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opium befogged the intellect of the other. Byron 's

pictures glisten like Alcyone and her sister Pleiads in the starry realms ; Coleridge shades off into a chiaro oscuro nebulosity. For verisimilitude of description , picturesque limning and glowing pathos of senti ment, where may we find a recreated scene that shall bear comparison with the “ Trinidada and the Ship wreck ?" The fond admirers of the Bristol bard need not be chary of their proffered homage latreia or douleia, whichever it be — to their quondam

idol, from apprehension of incurring penance for any supposed violation of the Decalogue, seeing that the

“ Mariner," as imaged in the “ Rime," knoweth not

its analogue in the “ likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath , or in the

water under the earth .”

As the Edinburgh hath it,

“ The shadow of something is resolved into the substance of nothing.” 12 . Any attempt to follow along the devious track by which the outré fancies of Coleridge would conduct us, were as bewildering as a chase after the giant shadows that loom up from out the mists of the

Hartz. Not in the gas-light illuminations of the camera shall we see symmetrical combinations of form and harmonious blendings of tints as produced in the kaleidoscope. Strip Coleridge and De Quincey

together of their tinselly word-drapery , enucleate the seed from its pericarp, and apply your magnifier to the residue. Suppose the Suspiria, the Essays, the

Confessions, with all their ostentatious train , were dis

lodged from the alcoves of our libraries, wherein

Opiuin .

96

would metaphysics or ethics, political science or

economics, be shorn of any real strength ?*

13. The autobiographer, Mr. B ., observes, that for a term of three years after he had come under the

habitual use of morphine, he was as comfortable in his general health and as vigorous for brain -work as he had ever been . He, for all, while claiming for opium -eaters a certain “ method in their madness,” makes the significant admission that their speculations

are as vagarious as their eccentricities are peculiar . This martyr-votary (for such he had become through a third and final relapse into a bondage dating thirty years back ),so versatile in mental adaptiveness,“ gram maticus, rhetor, geometres” — preacher, lawyer, and

editor, by a sort of e-pluribus-unum combination , seemed to present a tangible realization of the poet's

conception, “ Sometimes he, like Cerberus, would seem Three gentlemen at once.”

14. As appertaining to the history of this species of literature three names renowned in oratory , and representative of three nationalities respectively, claim distinctive notice here. 15. Lamartine, a Cato redivivus in his curule -chair

before the presence of the Assemblée Nationale, having survived his proper self, sunk in a dotage into which gourmanderie with opium finally con * “ Tolle tuum , precor, Hannibalem victumque Syphacem E castris, et cum tota Carthagine migra.” — JUVENAL.

Opium -Literature in the Reflex View .

97

spiring had hopelessly cast him , has at last passed from our sight forever: “ Hei mihi qualis erat, quantum mutatus ab illo !"

Painfully verified in him was a remark of De Pouque ville — “ The opium -eater has ceased to live ere he has ceased to exist.” 16 . Robert Hall, driven to opium as a resource against nervous derangement and general physical

prostration, should , in view of his reluctant surrendry to one evil as against a greater , be accounted an ex ceptional case rather. Inherited constitutional sus ceptibilities had as early as his sixth year determined in an intense spinal pain ; a symptom aggravated un doubtedly by a habit in his boyhood of sitting with

his book and perhaps for hours together in the shade of some tree . In 1826 or by twenty years from the first, he was taking 1000 drops of laudanum daily ;

but this quantity he appears not to have exceeded.

His sufferings, at no time less than severe,were some days excruciating. During all this trying period he

had not passed so much as a single night in bed,and sometimes he went sleepless the nightthrough. Upon him opium appears to have operated less as a physical excitant than as a neutralizer of pain . The moral sense does not seem to have swayed outof its proper

equilibrium here through any disturbing attractions generated by a temulent imagination . The soul within , still self-poised and serene, could say to itself, “ Retire ; the world shut out, thy thoughts call home; Imagination's airy wing repress.”

m Opiu .

98

17 . John Randolph of Roanoke — that incarnation of irony and lord of ridicule — that “ Fiery soul, which working out its way,

Fretted the pigmy body to decay,"

was from early youth an invalid with a severe spinal malady of some sort, out of which grew an irritability that cleaved to him his lifetime (Garland). It were no extravagance of charity to assume that the capri cious exacerbations of temper and the habitual way wardness of demeanor that so obtrusively marked the man , were in large measure ascribable to the all-controlling habit as much as to the inherited physique. In intellectual fire , sarcastic invective, and

withering repartee , Randolph loomed up before his peers of the American Congress, “ Like to somemeteor streaming to the wind ,

With gemsand golden lustre rich emblazed .”

The halos that in fancy played around those tremu lous lips, as words seraphic in tones mellifluous

swelled upon enraptured ears, “ The applause of listening senates to command," faded with the occasions that had evoked them , fleet ing away like “ the troubled sea that cannot rest.”

Fit

inscription for the tombstone of the poet-orator were the line

“ Here in the dust the wreck of genius lies.”

CHAPTER X . LONGEVITY AND PERSONAL DETERIORATION .

“ Abstulit clarum cita mors Achillem ; Longa Tithonum minuit senectus.” — HORACE .

“ Devouring famine, plague and war, Each able to undo mankind ,

Death's servile emissaries are : Nor yet to these alone confined -

He hath at will More quaint and subtle ways to kill.” _ Shirley.

1. Longevity, in the prospective, is to be deter mined, not upon the citation of instances exclusively

but from physical condition and social surroundings also . Plato died in harness as it were, that is, pen in hand, at the ripe age of 84. Suleyman of Constanti nople passed into his 99th year. Dr. Burnes cites the

case of Visrajée, a Cutchee chief 80 years old and more at the time, with health unimpaired, though an eater a lifetime. Schlegel's woman lived upon lau danum , one might say, having used it regularly from

her 49th to her 70th year, and at the rate of 300 drops in her last years. Dr. Christison instances a woman of 70 , who had been habituated 40 years of the time; and another, a Leith woman , who used half an ounce

as long, and who lived ten years longer. Dr. Pid

duck had a similar case of the other sex. A Brooklyn ( 99 )

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Opium .

pharmaceutist furnishes for this record the case of a grandmother who died at 98, having in a measure

subsisted upon laudanum for a quarter of her life. The amount for the last two years (and this had not for a long timevaried considerably) was 2 tablespoon fuls, always provided she could get that much al

lowed her. Emaciated and withered some beyond what in the course of nature was to be expected, she lived exempt from nervousness and constipation . Edward Parrish notices a Philadelphia lady, who having at her advanced age fallen under a sudden

apprehension of impending death , betook herself to opium as what must save her, if anything could, and now for several years she is still holding out. Five octogenarians there have been known of by the

writer, all within New York City and the environs, and twice as many ranging between 65 and 75. 2. Observers neither few nor obscure have raised the question, whether any curtailment of the life -term

is to be ascribed of course to the free use of opium . Dr. O 'Shaughnessy of Calcutta , one of the doubters, declares his opinion thus: “ The longevity of the opium -eater is proverbial.” Smokers not a few , sixty and seventy years old , who had been addicted half their lives, came under the notice of Surgeon Smith . Dr. Oxley was assured by several such , that neither is life shortened nor health impaired , provided due limitations in quantity are maintained. Dr. Burnes,

at the Court of Runjeet Singh, remarked that the people of that locality did not, to appearance, suffer much from using opium , nor was there any visible

Longevity and Personal Deterioration . . 101

contraction of the natural period. Sir John Bowring, a resident at Canton in an official capacity for twenty years, pronounces the accounts published by many tourists as superficial in description and overwrought

in detail. Here at home Dr. C. A . Lee reckons it far from proven that opium , used in moderation , either contracts the expected term or impairs func tional regularity. These views are strengthened cer tainly by certain known facts. Thus Dr. Harper, at the Dispensary in the Fen district of Lancashire ,

counted up one day out of the entire company of con sumers, fifteen persons averaging in quantity , to 72 an ounce, whose medium age was 75 years. The

Assei-Batang (gold -traders ), a very industrious class , though notably given to the smoking of opium , are healthy and robust, says Marsden ; and even in the

factories at Benares, the atmosphere ofwhich is con stantly charged with pulverulent particles or vapory exhalations arising from the gummy masses, the packers and other manipulators have an average of

life comparing favorably with the handicraft-workers generally (Dr. Eatwell). 3. Reports and opinions in discrepancy with such are

not lacking nevertheless. Dr. Oxley, while resident in Singapore, had never met (a single instance, an octogenarian ,excepted) the first opium -eater that had gone beyond maturity. Dr. Madden at the Constan tinople Bazaar found but one visitor who had passed

his climacteric, a man who had formed the habit twenty -five years before. Most of the thériakis present

were apparently short of thirty -five. Dr. Parker and 9*

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Opium.

Dr. Macgowan both, after an extended survey of the field , express corresponding views. Says De Pou queville, “ The man who begins at twenty cannot ex

pect to pass his thirty-sixth year” (a point twenty- five

years short of his term according to the life-tables), and Oppenheim concurs. Pohlman, American mis sionary at Amoy, and Martin of the civil service, would reduce even this term . Dr. Little, a final appellant in all inquiries that pertain to opium , affirms that the stimulus when freely used not only shortens the term of life, but operates powerfully in making that life miserable so long as it lasts. American phy sicians hold similar views. Dr. Palmer had but three

patients at most who had neared seventy ; most fell short of the meridian .

4 . Thus speaks Cabanis upon narcotic stimuli in general : “ L 'usage habituelle de narcotiques contribue beaucoup à la longue à hâter vieillesse précoce, éner vant avant le temps, et s'aggravant de jour au jour.” Of 29 détenus at the House of Correction in Singa

pore, all Chinamen, the 21 who smoked bore every

one of them a sickly aspect with indications of prema ture decline; of the 9 besides, only 2 had been in valids in any respect. The doses of the twenty -one varied between 24 and 350 grains, the average being 80.* Mustapha Shatoor, whom Edward Smith saw

in Smyrna, seemed by his withered face and scorbutic tooth -sockets full twenty years older than he was. His counterpart,as described by Adams,was a feeble * Vide The Seven Sisters of Sleep : Cooke, 1869.

Longevity and Personal Deterioration .

103

old man of a Malay village, bent almost double upon himself, whose skinny, clawlike fingers, ulcerous

mouth and waddling gait, gave him much the ap pearance of another Nebuchadnezzar turned out to grass .

5. Thedeteriorative influence may show itself, though variously , in an entire household . There is the Chrystie family of L ., a N . E . town , numbering five in all, who subsist upon opium , consuming whatever

they can raise the money for, whether by stealing or otherwise, all having the look of emaciation and stu pidity . The father in particular has become excess

ively nervous from cataleptic spasms, and all appear as if a slow death were upon them . A single excep tion among them is a daughter, who, having had a home away from the rest, has kept clear of the con

tamination. Her advantage over them ,both mentally and in person , is obvious and unmistakable . Three ounces of the gum per week ( as much as they are

able to procure anyhow )make the supply for the five ;

but be it so much or less than this they never fall back upon liquor as a substitute (Dr. S . S .). 6 . The aspect of the opium -eater who has fully succumbed to the malign influence is thus indicated :

A sunken glassy eye with a livid circle around the pupil, dilated at first but afterwards permanently

contracted, the skin of a muddy yellow or bronzed, an embarrassed tongue with thick speech, fissured lips, spine pronated and to an extremeperhaps, wasted limbs, a claudicating,vertiginous gait, a look haggard, decrepit and cadaverous, and in the end a general

104

Opium.

derangement of the physical functions and a paralysis of the mental faculties.

7 . A fit appendix to the preceding summary is the case of the Turkish Effendi, reported by Beaujour,

who had his boluses every hour, varying them with coffee taken twice as often , and whose sole aliment

properwas six ounces of rice. This desiccated speci men of humanity might have passed very well for a mummy.

8. Facts and opinions thus apparently conflicting in the exterior view are sufficiently reconcilable if various qualifying considerationsbe allowed due force. Prominent among these are purity in the article and

moderation in the use. As observes the Rev. Mr.

Doolittle, “ The favored classes, being possessed of abundant means, can always procure supplies of the

purest quality , whereas artisans and others are neces sarily limited to the inferior sorts.” Then , too, the rich , unrestricted as they are in the variety of their

luxuries, are less likely to push any one of them to an extreme. Indeed, with the greatmajority of con

sumers, the most powerfully co-operative influence is the scant supply of food and its unsubstantial quality .

Universally it holds, as the mortuary records show , that people of easy condition in life with the various

luxuries accessible, free livers though they be, do as a class outlast nevertheless their ill-provisioned and impoverished neighbors ; just as the fastidious gour

met who sips Lafitte at Tortoni's will outlive the saboted artisan who goes for his vin ordinaire six times a day to the cabaret in the Banlieu .

Longevity and Personal Deterioration .

105

9. There is a certain class in the commonalty , the littérateurs, who make a far better show than the average. Randolph died at 60, Coleridge at 62, Hall

reached 66,and De Quincey (who had one long period of intermission, however ) attained to 72. Lamartine went to his 77th year, but then he began too late to be included properly in this enumeration.

10 . In this chapter may properly be recorded the history of an opium -eater, more remarkable, as viewed in all its phases, than any that has hitherto found a place on the records of medical journalism .

11. In 1852 there called at the office of the writer, upon the suggestion of a mutual friend , a person of mature age as he obviously was, yet retaining much

of the clearness of complexion , brilliancy of eye, and

elasticity of gait that belong properly to youth, and with voice marked by mellow tone curiously vibrating

between falsetto and basso . This visitor (a gentleman of the ancien régime truly in his entire bearing), now in his eighty -sixth year, in view of his robustness ,

and but that his teeth were gone,might have passed for a man of sixty. A specific symptom having been prescribed for,the patient departed , to be met a second

time and on Wall Street thirteen years after, when it was observed he still maintained the en -militaire port of the early soldier.

12. Captain F . L ., of the both British rifles, who during an eventful life has circuited the globe twice

over in the prosecution of official service rendered at remote stations, contracted one time,while doubling Good Hope, a rheumatism in the form of lumbago.

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Opium .

The malady proving obstinate, opium , faute de meil leur, as advised by a medical officer,began to be used ,

but irregularly only and in half-grain doses at most. The present mitigation of suffering that was very sure to follow invited renewals of the pill, untilwhat had been only an occasional resource became an indis pensable companion. For two years no augmentation in quantity was made, and indeed for a long period

there were but very inconsiderable additions. From the tenth year on to the fourteenth the advance was

from about twenty to thirty -six grains. From this point,however,there was a more accelerated progress ,

up to a drachm at length . The maximum finally reached was 75 grains for the twenty -four hours, and only in a single instance, and to the extent of twice seventy -five grains, was this amount ever exceeded .

Precise measure appears, however, to have been of secondary moment, for, so resistive was his physical stamina, he could on an emergency drink off a tum

blerful of laudanum entire, the very thing he once did at sea,being supplied from the medicine-chest.

An extra annoyance was a local neuralgia induced by a shell-wound at Busaco . A fragment of this

missile, having got a lodgment in the thigh, lay im bedded there for more than twenty years, slowly burrowing its way towards the knee, from whence it was finally dislodged by the scalpel. 13. This Nestor of opium -eaters, — for he has been

a consumer over half a century and for something over one-half of his life, — now 104 years of age, whose present regular dose is 60 grains or one drachm

Longevity and Personal Deterioration.

107

of the solid gum , experiences none of the excitement,

physical or mental, that pertains to the habit, feeding well and sleeping regularly . Opium has become in his case a constituent part of the pabulum vita , a

roborant, in fact, as indispensable for the maintaining of the several functions in their proper energy and

equipoise as is the daily ration of food. Only two considerable discomforts are felt : an occasionally in

tervening diarrhea, during the continuance of which the usual allowance is reduced perhaps by one-half or thereabouts ; the other, that besetting symptom

attaching to the habit, and which holds the victim in perpetual thrall - constipation. This often persisted for a fortnight together, unrelieved thus long except

from the stimulus of some active purgative, until, as advised by the writer, recourse was had to instru mental aid , and to the signal relief of the sufferer.

The syringe, now had in almost daily requisition for eighteen years,has about superseded cathartics. Upon a medium calculation , this veteran of veterans has consumed in the course of half a century two-thirds a hundredweight or more of solid opium ; but for all

this his personal aspect and habitual carriage betoken a fairly vigorous man scarcely advanced to years fourscore. A physiological anomaly so unique, so extraordinary , should presumably derive some eluci

dation from the checkered course as traced in the life -record.

14 . This voyaging soldier, born in London , March

9 , 1766, was of Anglo -French parentage. His father's father was among the Huguenots who were expelled

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Opium .

from France in 1685 by the edict of Nantes ; his mother was an Englishwoman . After an educat'on

at the Croydon military school young L ., at the age

of twenty -three, was commissioned an ensign. Pre viously to his embarkation for the Peninsula he had served under Cornwallis in India , under York in Hol land, andwith the force that co -operated with Nelson at the bombardmentof Copenhagen . In Spain itwas, 1810 , that he achieved signal distinction. Having volunteered to lead the forlorn -hope against a French

battery which , from a height,commanded the town of Busaco, the young ensign carried the redoubt after a brief but desperate struggle, but at the expense of fifty-nine killed and wounded out of a squad of one hundred picked men. Himself,already wounded from a fragment of an exploded shell, was felled to the ground in the very crisis of the fight, receiving a cut across the scalp from a sabreur. In recognition of this

feat of successful daring — conduct that in the grande

armée would have earned a marshal's baton conferred upon the field - he was awarded a commemorative

medal and a captaincy. Subsequently on service at the Cape, the new captain introduced himself for the

first time to the Yankees, his future friends, by over hauling an American cruiser. This was in 1811. In 1814 he is found at the Vienna Congress an attaché

of Castlereagh ; and at St. Helena,whither his regi ment had been ordered, he made the acquaintance of

the illustrious prisoner, Napoleon . Having sold out

his commission in 1818, this indefatigable man,never tired of service , turns up as governor of a convict

Longevity and Personal Deterioration .

establishment in Australia.

109

In 1824, being at sea

with his family on the way for London , he was ship wrecked in Algoa Bay, losing his wife , and with her all his earnings, fifteen thousand pounds in gold ; him self barely escaping, having been picked up on the strand in a state of insensibility and exhaustion . In

1837 the captain , then a voyager upon the Pacific Seas, visited Tahiti, some time after the French occu pation .

Ever faithful to his native instincts and an

cestral traditions, he rendered himself active in behalf of the English missionaries there who were suffering

some grievance at the time; but his interference oper ating somewhat in derogation of Gallic honneur, he

was tendered by the admiral on the station a gratui tous convoy to England ; a proffer which, with his characteristic suavity of politesse, he unhesitatingly

accepted. 15. A retired pensioner, denizened in New York since 1848 , this gentleman is now enjoying his “ sun

set of life” in a serene tranquillity amidst distinguished friends, who appreciate his worth and delight to do him honor. As if “ never weary in well-doing,” our friend during the riot-scenes of 1863 was the instru

ment, though at much personal hazard, of rescuing a life from mob-law vengeance ; thus earning, Athe nian -like, the honorable meed of a “ civic crown.”

16 . Conformably to habits established in early youth and but little departed from , the captain rises at three o 'clock in the morning and has a substantial meal, then reads till the hour has come when he can get his morning -paper a mile away, breakfasts at 10

IIO

Opium .

eight, and in due time is off for 'Change or the Fifth Avenue perhaps, gets home for dinner, which he has about two of the afternoon and which he sets to with

zeal and gusto, has a brief siesta after, and tea at five o'clock . At seven of the evening he retires for bed , and has a continuous comfortable sleep for six hours, undisturbed by dreams or visions of any description . Such are the methodical habits of the man , such is the daily routine. Hearing continues unimpaired , the eye is but little dimmed , the memory is still un confused and retentive, and conversational interviews

are conducted in a pleasant way, intermingled with sententious remark and lively reminiscence. The pre- eminently ennobling grace that adorns the char acter, and what must not be overlooked in this epi sode, is that firm faith fixed on Him who is the succor

and stay of us all. “ Letme embrace thee, good old chronicle, That hast so long gone hand in hand with Time Most reverend Nestor !”

CHAPTER X I. IMMATURE DEVELOPMENT AND FAMILY DEGENERACY.

“ Savior armis — Luxuria .” — JUVENAL. “ O Luxury , thou cursed by heaven 's decree ! How do thy potions, with insidious joy,

Diffuse their pleasures only to destroy !” — GOLDSMITH .

1. MOREL,while admitting that the medium term of life has doubled within three centuries, contends

nevertheless that the race , taken as a whole, is de generating. The idea, far from being paradoxical, derives a certain speciousness of support certainly from the general fact, that there are numerous de

teriorating agencies perpetually at work , whose ope ration is purely pernicious, and whose end is de struction . Peoples, like individuals, their climacteric attained and the solid buttresses of a rigid temperance

and a severe morality once undermined, verge by rapid slides towards disintegration and decay. In the stolid visage of the organ-grinder from the Tyrol, or in the stupid grimace that greets you from the

upturned faces of a group of Neapolitan lazzaroni “ Proles docta ligonibus Versare glebas” is there discernible , in faintest tracery only , one soli

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tary vestige of lineament that perchance links their pedigree with the Gracchi and the Metelli of old ? “ Poor, paltry slaves ! yet born midst noblest scenes ; Why, Nature, waste thy wonders on such men !"

2 . When Vasco daGama and Albuquerque voyaged to Malacca, there to plant colonies that should reflect lustre upon their ancient mother, little prescience had they even in dim shadow of the debasement and

apathy into which these settlements were eventually to sink . Here upon this Peninsula , says Dr. Yvan ,

where the Portuguese settlers number at most but three thousand , one may see on every street boys with etiolated complexion and puny limb,who if per

chance they survive the period of childhood will pass at once to that of adult life (for here there is no intervening season of youth ), to lapse ere long into a

premature decrepitude. An enemy, subtle as the

.serpent, more malignant than war and pestilence combined, has wrought out the mischief. So , too , Formosa (Isle of Beauty) presents the spectacle of a race once hardy and warlike, but now sunken in an

emasculating decline through subjection to the same pestilent invader. Of the children in Malacca whose

parents have been habituated to opium ,says Surgeon Smith , “ They go about with the physical expression of general enervation , and in their mental aspect the

imprint of dulness and fatuity . So of the boys in Amoy, whose index-marks are watery eyes, sunken cheeks, and sallow faces, an idiotic expression, and a mopy gait.”

Verily , “ the iniquities of the fathers

Immature Development and Family Degeneracy. 113 are visited upon the children even unto the third and

fourth generations." 3. Assam , as appears from the account by Bruce, presents an equally ugly picture . “ Opium is the

plague-spot that threatens to depopulate this beautiful country. Here is a people, once vigorous and thriv

ing, now themost demoralized and degenerate of all the tribes of India . As in China, where population has fallen off from an annual advance of three per cent. to one-third this, so here the natural increase is visibly kept down through impaired fecundity ; and as for old men , there are very few indeed . Deplorable

as is the physical corruption of the Assamese , their moral debasement is even worse. Eking out exist ence in a miserable effeminacy, and utterly imper

vious to any sense of shame, they will recklessly go to any excess for the procuring of their stimulus, even to the bartering of wife and children.” 4 . The doctrine of hereditation — in which is implied neither the transmission of vice actual (personal trans gression involving will), nor yet the certain perpetu ation of any one definite appetite before every other,

but only a proclivity to some one kindred taste or habit - meets us as far back as when Plato speculated and Aristotle dogmatized, if indeed we do not find

the germ of the same in the story of “ man's first dis obedience.”

Hippocrates presents the main idea

thus : “ Patrum in natos abeunt cum semine mores.” Saith Mercatus, “ Habitus per assuetudinem acqui situs, transit in naturam .” Lucretius also long since 10 *

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enunciated the same idea, one phase of the famous dogma of the “ Similia similibus,” in this line : “ Fit quoque ut interdum similes existere avorum ,"

and he at a later day is followed by Valsalva : “ Animal simile simili generat, secundum naturam in

actu.” Synd Ahmed Bahador, a pundit of the day, claims for the Brahminical Mishna the original pro mulgation of the doctrine. Youatt finds an analogy

obtaining in the inferior animals. As exemplifica tions of development in the human constitution may

be instanced, oinomania , boulimia , nymphomania ; in the moral, not unfamiliar examples are, pseudo

mania , kleptomania, phonomania .

5. This “ corruption of blood," as indicated in the general physiognomy, works in either of two ways : by directly obstructing the proper evolution of the

brain -substance , or else by bringing about at a later period an impaired integrity of structure, and by con

sequence an enfeebled vitality, and besides a circum scribed power of intellection . Dr. Palmer of Ontario , speaking of women addicted to opium , observes that

they seldom venture upon marriage, for that barren ness and disappointment in other respects are the results in prospect. Mrs . P ., a patient of his , who made her beginning two years before marriage, that is, ten years ago, was divorced after a time. No children came of this union , and there was no suffi cient explanation of the fact other than in the exist ence of the habit. This person , notwithstanding her

Immature Development and Family Degeneracy. 115 " general denial,” is known to be using morphine to the amount of a drachm per week .

6 . Most toxic agents, of whatever name, appear to possess some common property , by virtue of which they determine primarily to the brain or the spinal axis. The observation is borne out by various pathologic

evidences. Prof. Ogston of Aberdeen,* upon exam ining the brain of a woman who in a drunken -fit had

just drowned herself, found in the cerebral ventricles a fluid that in physical properties corresponded essentially to alcohol.

In the Illinois Journal of

Medicine is recorded the case of a man , also drowned while intoxicated, from whose brain , on removal of the calvarium , there emanated an odor distinctly al coholic. The consequences to be expected under

similar conditions are thus expressed by Morel :

“ Sous l'influence des alcooliques et quelques narco tiques (telles que l'opium ) il se produit des perver sions si grandes dans les fonctions du système ner veux, qu'il en résulte des véritables dégénerescences,

soit par la force directe de l'agent toxique, soit par la seule transmission héréditaire.” 7 . Two cases from Prof. Z . Pitcher , M . D ., of Detroit,

evince very considerable diversities of effect under the operation of the same narcotic - opium . Mrs. P . E . A ., now twenty -eight years of age,was the mother of two children . Phlegmasia dolens after each con finement, and a general hyperæsthesia existing which each return of the menstrual period always aggra * Vide Ed. Med. and Surg. Journal, 1853.

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vated, had got into the using of opium , periodically

only at first, but by-and-by continuously , until the habit had become settled. After a few years, the nar

cotic not being found to suffice the nervous craving , alcohol became an additional resort and in large and increasing amounts. Nutrition was not essentially

interfered with by these excesses, nor was she dis qualified for supervising the affairs of the household

through infirmity , either physical or mental, and, besides, she had been able to nurse and rear the children independently of help . Upon the cessation

of themenstrual function, the addiction to both stim uli grew upon her more and more ; and for the rest of her life or to her 64th year, the daily dose, some

what irregular, was often a scruple. The tempera ment of this patient might have led to the use of

whiskey independently of the existing causes. 8. Mrs. H . B ., now about forty -five years of age, and mother of eight children, was married at twenty . Health continued good until the birth of the youngest

child (eight years since ). Embolia of the uterine . sinuses (pursuant upon the last birth ) with its attend ant sufferings led to the practice of taking morphia

daily in small doses,but with much regularity , though in quantities increased as time advanced. At inter vals the alkaloid has been somewhat reduced in amount from the substitution of alcoholic liquors ; but lately both stimuli have gone on together and to

extravagance. Conspicuous upon all occasions is a growing imbecility of mind, the more evident now

from being in painful contrast with the natural and

Immature Development and Family Degeneracy. 117 moral force once so brilliant and strong in her habit ual demeanor.

9. The idea of an inheritance of some sort trans mitted from a corrupted fountain rests upon a founda tion stronger than mere presumption. In Norway, *1825, the spirit -duty was taken off, and in ten years from that the increase in percentage of congenital idiocy was ascertained to be as 150 to 100. Dr. Howe, in a Report to the Legislature of Massachu setts rendered in 1848, makes return of one hundred

idiots, whose parents to nearly one-half were found on inquiry to have been habitual drunkards. Accord ing to the second Report of the Binghamton Asylum ,

it was ascertained that out of 1406 persons who had suffered delirium tremens, the parents or else the

grandparents on one side or the other had been drunkards in 980 instances. Dr. Down in the Lon don Lancet for 1859 records two cases pertinent to the main inquiry. In one family there was a child

five years old with the intelligence of a nine months'

infant,but without deformity of body. Several of the children showed corresponding defects. In another family a part of the children were growing up healthy in look and of normal stature, and the last of the

entire group also presented as good an appearance. In the intervening period, and after the father had become a habitual drunkard, two children were born ,

markedly distinguished from the rest in their stinted forms,big bellies, and bulgy heads. There was ground for believing that in both instances procreation had been effected inter paroxysmum .

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10 . The proper view to be taken of these and other analogous cases is this undoubtedly ; not that a cer

tain physical appetite or organic vitiation, northat a definite moral proclivity is certainly determined , but rather what Dr: Parrish has termed it, “ an inherited

condition of system .” Nero, says Petronius, in the

beginning of his reign deported himself soberly and in the exercise of a mild , forbearing spirit ; but ere long — “ tel racine, telle feuille ” — throwing off all

disguise , he rushed headlong into wild and even un natural excesses, as if he would subvert the very order

of nature, nursing his high -blown vanity and malig

nancy of temper in the practice of cruelties, such as were to have been expected of the monster-brood born of an Agrippina. “ Can a fountain send forth

from the samemouth both sweet water and bitter ?” Hartley Coleridge,* who followed his father in pro pensity to excesses, though in a collateral course

rather, is forced in the agony of his desperation to exclaim , “ O woful impotence of weak resolve !"

11. Butwe are not compelled to halt upon analogy, however significant that may be viewed as negative pregnant evidence. There are facts confirmatory of

this sort of foetal susceptivity where opium also has been the toxic used. Upon an inquest held at Wal

pole by Dr. Macnish, it appeared that a child , five years of age, though to appearance only so many weeks old, had never been able to walk nor so much * Vide Elam , Physicians' Problems, 1869.

Immature Development and Family Degeneracy. 119

as to utter an articulate sound. The mother during her gestation (as was in evidence) had taken to mor phine, using a drachm a day in the months just pre ceding her demise. The child , born before the habit had become fixed, showed a normal development and the aspect of general health . A confirmatory case is

by H . Vanarsdale, M .D ., of New York. In this in stance the parties, both of them , were healthy and robust by original constitution and by habits of life too, with the exception that the woman had for a very considerable period been in the practice of using morphine regularly and to great excess. An infant born subject to the liabilities had only a very imper fect physical organization with weak intellectual in

dications. 12. Pestilent as opium is upon the brain developed in its maturity, yet more pernicious, times over, is

the reaction when it falls upon immature years. Whether the child suck in the poison mediately through the natural lacteal channels, or whether it receive the same pure and undiluted as measured

out by the teaspoon, contamination is equally assured. “ Mourir en fleur ou vivre bien petit" - such is the slippery tenure of life, such the inexorable necessity imposed. In view of such prospects, what shall be thought of a fashion obtaining among families of dis

tinction in China, that of encouraging boys yet within the age of puberty in the use of the opium -pipe, with

the fallacious expectation that such habit may per chance exert a resistive force against appetites and

indulgences of a more sensual character ?

The fur

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nishing of laudanum by their impoverished parents to children employed in the cotton -mills of Lanca shire may make a plausible show of excuse ; but what

can be said in palliation of practices, as in some of the lace-factories for instance, where the infant incum

brances, fruits of the “ impermissa gaudia” enjoyed in their liaisons de convenance, are put upon Godfrey

as precedent to the stronger alcoholic tincture , by which together they are used up in about six months ? Dr. Harper says of the Fen districts, where laudanum

is given extensively , that the infantmortality is at an

excessively high figure, and his account is corrobo rated by the doctors and the clergy of the parochial

districts all over England. 13. A pertinent case is from Prof. Pitcher. J. W . A .,

a young man at the time and a midshipman in the Navy (about 1825), had contracted the habit of intem perate drinking. His father, with the view to his reclaiming, sent him into the Indian country in charge

ofan attaché of the American Fur-Company. Having reached Sault de St. Marie he had an attack of de lirium tremens, and to get rid of the horrors of his hallucinations he one day made a plunge into the

Falls. Rescued from this peril,he renounced whiskey for eight years, or during his residence in this region, having substituted in its place tobacco, of which he used large quantities.

14. Soon after reaching the wintering -ground of the detachment, he married a half-breed Chippewa, by whom he had one child , a daughter, with feeble intellect and scrofulous habit. On his return to De

Immature Development and Family Degeneracy. 121

troit, in 1835, Dr. P .met him again . Meantime he had taken a second wife, one-fourth Shawnee,and,as appeared, had become habituated to opium in con nection with his tobacco, though as yet and for some time after he was able to keep his habit disguised .

15. At the outbreak of epidemic cholera in 1849, being in painful dread of an attack , he voluntarily and without advice gave up all his narcotics ; but

there followed upon the change an appalling fit of delirium as before , with accompanying spectral illu sions indescribably terrible. Recovering again , he resumed his opium , now in the form of morphine,

increasing the amount until he had reached 20 grains.

From this time onward there proceeded a gradual decay of intellectual power, the will especially be coming extremely feeble. The habit continued until

1856, broken only by death . In his case the appetite for alcoholic stimuli — the reverse order is the com

mon one - preceded the opium . 16 . The children born after the second marriage did not all inherit the infirmity of the parent; the two thatwere of his own temperament showed a tendency to phthisis. Both became intemperate drinkers, and one died such ; the other, having substituted opium for alcohol, still survives, the progress of the original malady being apparently arrested. In relation to hereditary transmission generally, Dr. P . is of opinion that the liability is greater when referable to the mother. .

17 . A case of Dr. Palmer's seems to incline to the doctrine of qualified hereditation. II

The youngest

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child of a family, now arrived at his majority nearly,

has grown up an illiterate dullard, from sheer in capacity to learn anything. Following the mother but on a different line, he has thus early taken to dis sipated ways, with the prospect of dying a sot. The mother, Mrs. H ., now of the age of 50, has used opium for half this period , though never exceeding a drachm for the week . There came under thewriter's notice, not long since, an invalid eighteen years old perhaps, of scrofulous habit somewhat, with an ob

scure indication of choreic tendency, and in intellect

decidedly below par. This girl, the fifth in the series, was born after an interval of half a dozen years ,by which time the habit of the mother (which had had its beginning soon after marriage, if not considerably earlier) was thoroughly established and in more pal

pable development.

No indications of taint were

noticeable in the older children .

18. The reckless employment of opiated preparations to the imperilling of infant life almost exceeds belief.

There was a woman in Singapore, a desperate smoker at the rate of 36 grains of the chandoo daily , with two

young children to care for, which she managed on , this wise. To stay their noise (for they would whine and moan all the day if left to themselves) shewould

breathe over their faces a whiff or two of opium smoke. This practice (a common one in her country, as she represented to Surgeon Smith ) allowed her to

go to her task in the fields, unincumbered and un embarrassed.

E . Parrish of Philadelphia knew of a

mother who used to give her child (it was but two

Immature Development and Family Degeneracy. 123 years old ) for a morning-potion a tablespoonful of

laudanum , and for a similar purpose. 19 . Paregoric, that household bane so empirically and yet so lavishly dispensed by imprudent mothers , whether for its present sedative efficacy , or whether

for its supposed prophylactic virtue , has been , as an instrument of retributive evil, the very Nemesis of the nursery. Here is an enumeration of particu

lars by a medical correspondent of the “ Morning

Chronicle :" Serous suffusion of the brain , if not de generescence of the substance, with disruption of the cranial sutures, extreme nervousness and a lowered vis vita , a sallow , corrugated skin , a tympanitic abdo

men, limbs shrunken and shrivelled, a mopy gait, the facies hippocratica as of the death-spook in the window , youth in fine already transformed into the

ugliness of decrepit age, with tabes mesenterica or dropsy in the not distant future — such are the ap

pearances, such the prospects. Could our mortuary registers reveal more of the hidden causes that are unremittedly operating to the impairment of the

physical constitution ere the primal period has passed, they would tell of children sacrificed in heca tombs year in and out, the passive victims of syrups and elixirs whose labels are as audaciously false as the gilding is vulgarly profuse.

20. A case in point once fell under the observation of the writer of these pages. Mrs. B ., a matron of a New England town, had taken for adoption into the

family a boy then two years old . The child , from excess of solicitude and out of a mistaken kindness ,

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was pampered with candies and other entremets during

the day, so that by the time night had come it had got gorged to repletion. Restive now under its colicky pains it was not to be amused with cradle

rockings, and so the dernier-ressort, the infallible paregoric -vial,was taken into service. The dose, ten drops for a start, soon grew to a teaspoonful, and such supply was continued unremittedly through several months. As in similar cases, brief was the course and urgent the close, - hydrocephalus in the sixth year. “ So fades the lovely blooming flower." * * “ Purpureus veluti cum flos, succisus aratro,

Languescit moriens.” — VIRGIL.

CHAPTER XII. IDIOSYNCRASIES .

" Quo teneam , vultus mutantem , Protea, vinclo ?” _ HORACE.

“ ' Tis green, 'tis green , sir, I assure ye Green (cries the other in a fury),

Why, sir , d 'ye think I've lost my eyes ?” — MERRICK .

1. Individual constitutions here and there turn up to notice, upon which the action of opium appears to be nearly if not quite innocuous ; others again , if not altogether intolerant of the malign influence, are ex tremely impressible to such influence. All such are

cases of idiosyncrasy . 2. Organizations there are which seem fortified by the very constitution oftheir nature against exterior in

fluences altogether. Thusspeaks Cabanis :“ N 'oubliez pas jamais, qu'il est des organisations qui triomphent de tous les excès, parcequ 'ils ont reçu de Dieu le privilège de se retremper où tant d 'autres succom bent." Memorable instances may be cited in illus

tration. 3. Darius (says Athenæus), an extravagant wine

bibber,was never overcome by intoxication.* The * Note. This monarch took the pains to have engraved over his tomb the following epitaph (Henderson ): “ Here lies the man who could drink more wine and bear it too more bravely than any other

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great commoner, Pitt, on retiring from the House of Commons after an exciting debate , would drink off

two bottles of port as if it had been so much lemonade. Carré d'Avignon instances an invalid , yet short of his

fiftieth year,who daily consumed two-thirds of a litre of brandy , and with this two pounds of tobacco in

the course of a week . Marcet knew of a case not unlike, a man who besides his pint of spirit used up

in the course of the day a gallon to a gallon and a half of country -ale. Drinkwater of Worcestershire had a field -laborer who could drink his sixteen

quarts of cider in the working hours of the day ; but even this man is put into the shade by a Welsh squire told of, who weighed forty stone, and whose score was eight gallons of “ home-brewed .” Brissiac, one hundred and sixteen years old as reported , died

as he had lived, with a cigar in his mouth . Von Tschudi while in Peru met a coquero, a man re putedly one hundred and thirty years of age (a cen tenarian undoubtedly), who had been a coca -eater the larger part of his life , but who had never been sick , not for a day .

4 . There was a gentleman of New Jersey , Dr. G ., known to the writer, who died something more than

ten years since at the ripe age of eighty -two. This man , hale and agile, an early riser, a temperate eater, and ofmarked mental activity, was a noted consumer

of whiskey, though never to the extent of inebriation . mortal.” If one is disposed to make of his stomach a fermenting vat or a swill-barrel (to use John Hunter's phraseology), there is no disputing his taste.

Idiosyncrasies.

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The quantity for a single drink was about half a wine glass, but this was repeated three times or sometimes oftener before breakfast, and so in proportion for the

other parts of the day, to the amount altogether of one to one and a half pints. Such cases, however, belong rather to the catalogue of cas rares.

5 . Tolerance of opium is as conspicuous as is that of other narcotic stimuli. There was Mahomet Rhiza Khan of Schiraz,* who took opium enough at a time

to poison thirty ordinary persons, and yet when seen ten years after when he had got to be ninety-six years

old , he was to appearance as vigorous as ever. In the Pharmaceutical Transactions (London ) of 1860 is the report of an inquest held in the case of a young

roué, who, now tired of life and prepared to shuffle off the mortal coil, proceeded (as appeared from a memorandum left on his table ) after the following manner : Laudanum , a half-ounce draught, was fol

lowed up by eight grains of the gum ; but these proving inefficient, four grains of morphine and a swallow of Battley's liquor (what he had kept as a

reserve) were superadded, all having been used in about a week's time. The pistol completed the busi ness :

“ Il lui falloit, au lieu d 'opium , Un pistolet, et du courage.”

6. A more extraordinary case than the preceding has been published by Dr. MacGillivray of Canada .

A man of good estate, thirty -seven years of age, who * V. Morewood , Sketches of Persia.

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Opium.

used alcoholic liquors withal and to excess, had be sides been addicted to the use of opium now three years. One day and in the doctor's presence he

swallowed a drachm of morphine in half a tumbler of whiskey , and in twenty minutes from

this four

ounces of laudanum , and finally in the evening, after their return from the opera, he finished off with fifteen grains additionalofmorphine, with whiskey as at first.

No prejudicial effects had followed to appearance , though the man admitted his constitution was being

gradually undermined . Death from delirium tremens occurred somemonths after . 7 . Instances less conspicuous, but scarcely less sig

nificant,are of no infrequent occurrence. Dr. Russell at Aleppo was one day with a Turk , who in his pres

ence swallowed a drachm -lozenge in the morning, repeating his dose at noon and again at evening, and without evident prejudice. Dr. Tait of Edin burgh knew a lady of mature age, ruddy- faced and

sound , who had enjoyed her daily half-ounce of laud anum for twenty - four years . Wilberforce, who, as advised by Dr. Pitcairn, had used opium for its robo

rant power a term of years (though in moderate amounts only ), observes, that for any peculiar sensa

tions experienced he was scarcely aware on any one day whether he had taken his dose or had forgotten

it. There is a New York lady of patrician connections, Mrs. M ., who began the use of opium not far from twenty-five years back, and for causes incidental to the married state. She has reared a family of children nevertheless. Hermeasure for a good num

Idiosyncrasies.

129

ber of years (and what has not since been materially deviated from )was two drachms ofmorphia for every four days. The only obvious indication of the habit is a certain sparkle in the eyes and a very moderate exaltation of the spirits, and the only morbid effect

of consequence, a transient diarrhea after any casual

intermission. In all such cases, however, signs of deterioration will ultimately show themselves (Dr. L .).

In a lower sphere of life was an elderly lady of New Jersey, who used to come over to Moreton 's every three or four days for her opium , seldom varying

inside of half a drachm or exceeding a drachm . Thus

she did for ten years (though she had been an opium eater for twice that period) down to her death , which occurred about 1850, shebeing then in her sixty -ninth year. Health in the general was fair, constipation was never complained of, the countenance showed nothing

unusual other than a degree of sallowness, and the death appears to have had no obvious connection

with her habit.

8. In the London Lancet of 1837 is a narrative by Morewood of an Indian prince, a sensualist of the Oriental type proper, pampered in his imbecility of enjoyment by whatever power could command or gold could purchase. The account is his own , as given on a visit of the English ambassador. Eighteen

hours of the twenty -fourhe spent in sleep (if a dreamy stupor be such ),being aroused at intervals, and then

only for the renewal of his boluses; the remaining six he passed in a state of half-waking , engrossed

with his hallucinations and reveries. This potentate

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Opium .

thatwas by a Dei-gratia right purely,but victim really to a bondage more abject than pertained to the hum

blest of his menial attendants, used ounces of opium every day, taking no food proper , a little pilau only excepted . A servile imitator without the merit of

originality ,he practised upon a text that had been proclaimed centuries before: “ Eat, drink , and sleep , - what can the rest avail us ?

So spake that sceptred fool, Sardanapalus.”

9. At the opposite extreme are cases as remarkable, evincing the idiosyncrasy of intolerance. An instance is given by Reaumur. Several young men having come together one evening for a carousal, it was agreed to make an experiment upon one of the num ber,by dropping into his wine a four-grain powder of opium . The individual upon whom the decep tion was practised having retired to bed, was not thought of again until the next morning, when he was found rigid in death . Tournon gives the case of

a lad with earache, whose ear having been plugged with a bolus of four grains, he fell into a sleep soon

after , but to wake no more. Morphine too in the

proportionately small dose of one grain , and half an ounce of laudanum also (if not less than this ), have

acted fatally (Sieveking). 10. A very unusual exemplification of extreme sen

sitiveness under morphine, in the person of Dr. Van dervoort of New York, is here given as communicated by himself. For some unwonted and extreme ner vousness, the doctor has now and then found a won

Idiosyncrasies.

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derful quietive in morphine, but what is especially noticeable is the amount of effect so out of proportion

to the extremely small quantity used. Three minims of Magendie's solution (only lo of a grain of mor phine) would within a moderate space throw him into a state of serene sedation and most voluptuous repose, to be followed in three or four hours by a

profuse sudorific action of the most comfortable kind , and finally by a sleep for the night calm and refresh

ing. No nausea or other unpleasant symptom was

felt in the morning, unless the amount had been ex ceeded by a single drop or two, or in case the original dose had been repeated. 11. There is an idiosyncrasy of a secondary order, and of artificial creation rather, the creature of habit

carried to excess, but none the less distinguishable and peculiar when once established. This is a mor bid lesion of some kind, which , however perplexing

to the scrutiny of the anatomist, is none the less dis cernible in its developments. Here or there may be observed a case of extreme sensitiveness and impress

ibility of the stomach under the action of opium , whatever be the preparation used or however reduced the dose. Perseverance in the use , or a revived use

only after a period of intermission, becomes doubly hazardous. Analogies may be observed in the action

of the bromides,of lead, ofmercurial salts, upon such as have once undergone the characteristic organic changes. A lady, Miss Louisa X ., then under the

care of the present writer, suffered once a severe sal ivation of more than three weeks' continuance, and

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Opium .

all from a ten -grain dose of calomel, notwithstanding that the medicine had been followed within four hours by oil as a counter-agent. This pathologic excitability of the organism had been established through the intemperate employment of mercurials, more than ten years before, against a malarious fever.

12. The popular belief that opium , used habitually , if in moderation , is proprio vigore pernicious, is a proposition to be accepted only with qualifications. The differences observed are ascribable almost as much to race perhaps as to individual temperament.

The peoples of the Orient generally , being of the phlegmatic cast more, are able to bear with more certain impunity than Europeans, not stimuli only

but narcotics as well, be these alcoholic liquors or opium or tobacco. The Chinese, as Dr. Parker ob serves, have indeed “ a susceptibility to opium like

wax to the seal.” European families, if perhaps less responsive under the primal influence, appear alto gether less tolerant under the permanent impression . If not “ wax to receive,” yet “ marble to retain ” they certainly are. Dr. Macpherson says, that though the Chinese, rich and poor as well, are smokers in so large proportion , nevertheless as a people they are

athletic and vigorous and capable of great endurance,

and that the lower orders both as to intelligence and physical stamina are quite equal if not superior to the

uncultivated classes of the West. Sir H . Pottinger, and also Mas, Spanish envoy at Peking, have drawn

similar inferences from their observations. Even Dr. Little, while insisting that body and mind with it do

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not seldom wear out from excess, holds that thema jority suffer no more from smoking opium than do Englishmen from smoking tobacco. The coolies cer

tainly , inveterate smokers as they are, scarcely yield in persevering endurance to any class we could pit against them .

13. The indolent Turk too, as appears, is fully as

tolerant of the narcotic as his neighbor of the Farther East.

A great consumer of tobacco , coffee, and

opium , one and all,he breaks down only exception

ally. Turn him out for the big doses. Edward Smith metwith a gentleman in Smyrna, who took his

three drachms in themorning and at night again , and without experiencing either exhilaration or narcotism in an unwonted degree. This person himself ex pressed the conviction , however, that his extravagance

was wearing him out. On the borders of the Medi terranean and the Euxine with their balmy skies, like instances, not uncommon, could scarcely be matched here in Cisatlantic land. 14. The prima- facie objection to opium lies no more in the possible extravagance of use and the inci

dental liabilities than in the presumption , that the habit once fastened upon theman is fixed irreversibly ,

impressible to no impulse of the will-power from within , unyielding before any moral persuasives

brought to bear against it from without. Facilis de scensus - smooth is the slide over the slippery verge, but,revocare gradum — to face the whirl and surmount

an overwhelming tide, here is a conflict too mighty for I 2

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mortal endeavor. The desperate opium -eater is like some reckless mariner pushing his fragile bark along

an unexplored sea, careless of the hidden rock on which he may split or of the foamy eddy into which he is being furiously borne, until in a momenthe has passed from sight, “ Imo barathri ter gurgite sorptus.”

CHAPTER XIII. UTILITIES OF OPIUM , AND ANOMALIES. “ Quo nihilmagis meliusve terris Fata donavere, bonique divi.” — HORACE .

“ Take the goods the gods provide thee.” — DRYDEN.

1. Like as the prince of Athenian orators, when in terrogated upon the essential constituents of elo quence, pronounced action to be the first, the second ,

and thethird cardinal element, so the physician ,whom long experience has made sage, on surveying the broad field ofthe materia medica , would name opium

as the “ quo magis nil simile aut secundum ,” — his first, his second, and his third reliance. 2. Opium has been denominated , and in no extrava

gance of hyperbole, the grand catholicon for human ills. Laudation here has scarcely been exhausted even in the excess. In the “ Opiologia ” of Wedelius, opium is the “ medicamentum cælitus demissum ,” — the heaven -born gift. Tillingius styles it the " an

chora salutis sacra,” — the bower-anchor of health . Sydenham says that “ medicine without it would go at a limping gait ;" and John Hunter, in an exuber ance of enthusiasm , exclaims: “ Thank God for opium !” Van Swieten in his estimate does not fall

behind : “ Opium , le plus efficace de tous les médi ( 135 )

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Opium .

caments et sans quoi l'art de guérir cesserait d 'exister ,

est le remède de quoi le Tout-Puissant a fait présent pour le bonheur et la consolation de l'humanité souf frante.” Opium is indeed the Columbiad of the medical arsenal.

3. Of this most potent agent thus writes Dr. Lee: “ In disease , suppose the dose restricted within war rantable bounds, neither headache nor nausea nor

discomfort in any form ensues, but a peaceful sleep is brought on, to be succeeded by a feeling of re freshing. Not merely is nervous excitement quieted and physical depression guarded against, but more :

when there has been degenerescence of tissue, as from phagedænic ulcerations, opium , while it as suages pain , arrests in notable ways the morbid waste that is going on and re-energizes the languishing

functions. The powers of this life-renovator,working out as they do under sinister conditions, appear indeed

almost marvellous, far surpassing in their magnitude any force that inheres in alcoholics or quinine, or in all the anæsthetics besides.” In the trist hour also that presages cold death 's approach to disjoint the

mortal fabric, opium viewed as a euthanasial resource alone is second only to the vital air webreathe.

4. As an instance of the adventitious support that opium often renders under disease, the case of the late Dr. O . of New York may be adverted to. An invalid half his life and from inherited causes, he was

afflicted mainly with a form of neuralgia which seemed disposed to concentrate its force in the knee-joints. Pains most acute , of the spasmodic sort, would sud

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denly invade the parts and without any premonition whatever, and pass off again perhaps as suddenly . The suffering at such times was excruciating, amount ing indeed oftentimes to an agony. By-and-by there were evidences of what is denominated locomotor

ataxia , which would show itself for instance on his getting into his wagon ,when he would be a consider

able time exercised in effecting the proper upright balance. There was but one resource that had been found of service to the mitigation of his pains, and

that was morphine. This he took very regularly and for a good while, two grains three times for the day.

His life, which indeed was by this help rendered tolerable only , was doubtless prolonged at least ten years beyond the limit by natural course. A promi nent symptom , and one of great annoyance, was a habitual constipation , which had no other relief for

the time than in the use of cathartic pills taken every three to four days. Life in this instance may be said

to have gradually worn down with the progress of the nervous exhaustion , and death surely was rather

a boon to be longed for than an evil to be deprecated . 5. The magical virtues which popular belief has ascribed to the poppy have been embodied in story and commemorated in song. Thus the illustrious

Carthaginian queen — " evicta dolore” - overcomewith grief and chagrin in the prospect of being deserted and left forlorn by the wily adventurer, to whom ,

out of the fulness of her confiding heart, she had so generously proffered an asylum and a refuge after his toilsome wanderings, all-despairing now , while 12 *

Opium .

138

dissembling her ultimate purpose, devises this strata gem . As if hoping, when other hope had failed, by availing herself of somemagic influence, still to detain

the fickle Æneas within her realm and against the declared decrees of fate , she commissions her sister Anna to undertake a journey away to Ocean 's farthest

margent, even unto Ethiopia 's bound, there to seek out a Massylian woman, priestess in Apollo 's temple (and the samewho had preserved the golden apples in the gardens of the Hesperides, by soporizing the dragon that was lying in wait and watching his chance

for them ), and there to procure from the sorceress a pharmakon that should dissolve her present enchant

ment,and deliver her desolate spirit from the thral dom

in which the perjured Trojan now held her

captive.*

6 . The piquant Molière, ever liberal of his satire in squaring accounts with the doctors, while ridiculing the routine medicaments of his day, has indirectly ,

perhaps unwittingly , pronounced a laudation upon opium . In the comedy entitled “ Le Malade Imagi naire,” there is introduced before a conclave ofmagis terial inquisitors a youthful candidate for professional honors, Monsieur Argan so called. To one of the various questions propounded, the young aspirant

replies in terms as follows : * “ Sacerdos,

Hesperidum templi custos, epulasque draconi Quæ dabat, et sacros servabat in arbore ramos, Spargens humida mella soporiferumquepapaver." - Æneid , iv.

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139

“ Mihi a docto Doctore Demandatur causa et ratio , Quare Facit dormire, Opium ; A quoi respondeo Quia est in eo Virtus dormitiva .”

7 . That opium imparts to the imagination a won derful vivacity and to the tongue a most lively volu

bility , is a fact that in instances has had signal display. There was Jane, Duchess of Gordon (that was) half

a century back , the cynosure of the gay throng and the life - spirit of the conversazione, whose life had been of as little account to the outside world as her death was of concern to the magic circle within which

she had lived and moved , — she drew her peculiar powers of inspiration confessedly from this same energizing fountain . A New York lady, of scarcely inferior but only of more circumscribed fame, and a

rival who might have been by chance-association ,

there was, a patient some twenty years ago of Dr. C . A . Lee. “ My friend, Miss H . (thus writes Dr. L .), a lady of brilliant endowments by nature, to which , however, opium gave additional lustre, was accus tomed to have her paregoric , a pint, daily . Regu

larly as the morning came her bottle went to the apothecary's, and by night the contents were used up. Bright as a star in Andromeda's girdle, she shone amid the throng from eight o'clock in the evening to midnight and past, often seeing the grey

morning ere she retired for bed. Marvellous indeed were her parts and her power of display ; but then it

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Opium .

took her the entire day to rouse the fires and get up steam .” 8. A pertinent case belonging to the same family is

contributed by Dr. Quackenbos. Mrs. B ., who died about ten years since at the age of 65, contracted the habit of stimulating upon opium , using the same according to a doctor's prescription for hemorrhage

incident to the first parturition . A sherry wine-glass three times a day was her measure, and in regard to quantity she was always very precise , not having deviated in any degree as was believed for the last

fifteen years. Being a lady of fashion with abundant wealth , she divided her time between city and her country -house , without occupation either physical or mental, such as was likely to give a favorable diver sion to a growing morbid taste . Change for the worse

in almost every respect grew upon her as the months advanced .

The skin contracted a turbid yellowish

hue and had a good deal the feel of parchment. What,

however, is an exceptional condition, she had no regular constipation , nor did she in the progress of

years get dropsical. Her daily routine was this. Four o 'clock in the morning was her hour for bed and

from this on to ten, when she had her first glass or

eye-opener. By this time the whole framewould be agitated with most intolerable tremors ; but a cup of

black coffee (the strongest), taken soon after, helped to steady the nerves very decidedly . The day was worried through as best it might be by one who was

without the capacity to enjoy, and with whom the hours went laggingly along. The second glass was

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had at six in the evening, a little precedent to her breakfast, the first meal of the day. The third glass was taken at eleven , and now she was ready for the

drawing-room . In the daytime she looked like an old woman ; now she appeared as of the “ fat, fair

and forty ” age (without the fat). The transformation she had undergone by this was marvellous even to

her familiar acquaintances. Her skin (for she was of the sanguineous temperament)now shone again trans

parent as in youth , her eyes sparkled as with a gem glitter, and the brilliancy of her conversational talents concentrated upon herself the admiring attention of

all beholders. Her dinner-hour was low twelve, and

at this time she had an enjoyable repast. Her death had no connection with the habit, having followed

upon an attack of pneumonia. 9. The transient exaltation of the imaginative faculty under the inspiration of opium has an exemplification

in the polished and highly poetic style of Dr. Thomas

Brown's treatise on the “ Philosophy of the Human Mind." In elaborating his chapters the author would sometimes trench upon the deep hours of the night,

feeding the intellectual fire meanwhile whenever it flagged with bountiful potations of whiskey that had

been “ seasoned” from the laudanum -vial.* 10. Sensational lecturers of the Bombastes stripe, * Note. Sir James Mackintosh , a pupil of the doctor's at the time, on entering the office one morning somewhat abruptly and unex

pectedly , happened to overhear a private order (which was intended for the daughter 's ear alone) delivered in the following terms: “ Effie dear, bring me the moderate stimulus of a hundred drops."

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Opium .

that “ turba loquax" with their cataracts of declama tion * (“ Where comprehension vainly wanders lost")

dinned into our ears over and again, avail themselves on pressing occasions most conveniently and oppor tunely of the adventitious succor afforded by the

opium -pellet or the laudanum -draught.

Distin

guished criminal-lawyers (and a conspicuous instance

was Erskine of England) have been wont to prepare themselves for a special effort with the same sort of help . 11. Hunger, and that other torment, “ Of torments still the longest and the worst,

That adds all other agony - to thirst,”

has in extremity been wonderfully mitigated by opium . In 1770 (Kerr ) a famine pervaded India , and

so severe and wide-spread did the suffering become, that only people of wealth had themeans of providing for their wants, and making their condition at all tol

erable, in the substitution of opium for other food, procuring it finally at a most extravagant cost.

12. Says a correspondent of the L .Med . Gazette,

concerning the cotton -famine of 1863-4 : “ More suf fering was experienced among the factory -people of

Lancashire (a class that now make large use of the stimulus), through pecuniary inability to purchase their opium , than from restriction in their food : thus

extensively had laudanum superseded food proper.” * “Grande aliquid, quod pulmo animæ prælargus anhelet.” — PERSIUS.

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143

13. “ The London poor, many of them (says Dr. Anstie ), use opium considerably, but in the form of laudanum rather, and more extensively when they are upon short wages. Under the force of the stimulus, the desire for food proper is evidently dispelled in a most remarkable way.” The lalcarras (runners be tween Bombay and Surat) sustain themselves during their fleet-journeys upon the opium -bolus, without other addition than a small stock of dates (Dallaway) .

Could the thousands of our soldier-volunteers, the half- starved , half-frozen gaol-victims of Winder and

Wirz , in that Dartmoor of Secessiondom , Anderson ville Prison , have been granted the dole of a grain ration only of the quietive,hundreds from among the

thousands that there perished might even at this hour be rejoicing by the family hearth -stones again . Let the women of “ the crafts ” be admonished how they come to supplement with an opium -pill the scanty noon -lunch at the shop .

14. This roborative virtue inherent in opium has been put to practical service upon various emergen cies. Dr. Burnes had a journey to make one night

in the Cutch country through a rough region ,without so much as a bridle -path for road. With his guide,

a native , he made a halt atmidnight for refreshment. Following the example of the other ,he was persuaded

to use a drachm of opium , taking one-half himself

and giving the remainder to his horse. Having re mounted , they pursued their journey of forty miles

to its completion by morning, riders and horses both having held out in very good condition.

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Opium.

15. There was a Canadian farmer, one Paxton, now sixty years old , healthy and athletic to an unusual degree, who had been habituated to opium a good while, having taken at the rate of two ounces, and in his later years three ounces per week . With a proper

amount he was able to do the work of two common men , but without it he was reduced at once to a state of prostration and misery . In his desperation he

would, if necessary, even send his boys over the winter snows for miles of a night to procure a supply .

Hewas a free liver sure enough, for he drank whiskey in proportion, and chewed tobacco besides (Wayne). Dr. F. D . Lente knew an old cripple bent up with

rheumatism , whom he had repeatedly seen drink off his quarter-tumbler of laudanum , and without more ado than a toper would make over his half-gill of whiskey . This much he would take as he could get

it, whether it was by purchase or as a free-gift, for:as he said of the draught, “ it set him up all straight again .”

16 . A case every way remarkable if not altogether unique, evincing how the depression arising from short food and the exhaustion coming of exposure to the elements combined may be surmounted

through the energizing operation of opium , is here recorded as it was detailed in the hearing of the writer by the chief party concerned, and as confirmed by a surviving brother ,Capt. R . H .Griswold of Old Lyme,

Conn., and by the late Dr. N . S . Perkins of New London. In the year 1818 - 19 Captain Henry Griswold set sail in the ship Almira , bound from

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145

Cadiz for New York, with a cargo of salt. A few days out the vessel from being overladen sprang a

leak, requiring an immediate abandonment. The crew took to the long-boat on its being brought

alongside, though at the risk of being swamped, for the ship went under in about fifteen minutes. There was barely time to throw aboard a single cask of water, besides a few biscuit hastily gathered up from the dinner-table ; for the rest they must trust to luck . 17. Afloat now , captain and crew to the number of nineteen , in a crowded craft without shelter of any kind, they were “ driven by the wind and tossed” to contend with withering sun and pelting storm and surging sea as best they might, and for twenty -one long days and nights. In progress the day -ration was necessarily reduced to one gill ofwater and half

a cracker. Three of the number, having meantime gone into a delirium , were secured to the thwarts, and of these one died on the seventeenth day. The captain , constitutionally enthusiastic and jovial, had kept up the heart of his men with cheering words,

interspersed now and then with a song or a yarn, and an occasional sip allowed from the winter-green vial he had taken along . Thus they fared.

18. A Saturday nighthad come,when the captain , having dropped into a doze for the first time, seemed

to himself to spy land in the distance. (they were nearing Fayal Harbor, though unconsciously), and upon the shore a man in the habit of a friar standing

and beckoning Awaking, he breaks out in these 13

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Opium .

words : “ Cheer up, my boys, and worry the night through , we shall sight land to -morrow .” Sure enough , (and who shall doubt any longer about

dreams and premonitions !) next morning there hove in sight and within hailing distance a boat bearing what appeared to be the identical friar as seen in the

dream . They were soon in port, but almost ex hausted, all but the captain , the only man of the company now able to raise himself upon his legs. 19. Here is a mystery truly , now to be explained.

The captain , when ready to leave his cabin finally , on casting his eye hurriedly around caught sight of a vial that was standing apart on a shelf. This, without

any forethought, he slipped into his vest-pocket, taking from themedicine-chest at the same time the vial of winter-green . From the latter he distributed

to the men once a week regularly ; the other vial (and it proved to be the laudanum -vial) he reserved

for his own private use. This he applied from time to time to his lips and tongue, but stealthily and un

observed by the crew . The effect in reviving his strength and spirits was indeed magical ; and to the use made of the liquid he attributed (and correctly, no doubt) his sustained power of endurance. His

constipation (that most pestering symptom appertain ing to sea-life) he managed effectually on getting ashore, with the help of a half-pint draught from a

bottle of olive-oil. Another very noticeable effect of the laudanum was that it made the stomach tolerant of sea -water.

20 . Among the Orientals opium is used as a pre

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parative for the battle -field . In 1850 (Chinese Regis ter) just as a fight with the rebel force on the North ern frontier was impending, it was found one morning

that the imperial soldiery to the number of some thousands had made a stampede for a foray upon the neighboring country , with the intent of renewing their stock of opium . What precise advantage, however , is to be expected from such stimulus may be calcu

lated from a fact mentioned by Huc in relation to the campaign of 1832 against the Yaous, that the

emperor's army, though numerically superior, fell much below their adversaries in pluck and steadiness. The repeated successes secured by the rebel chief,

often against great odds, are ascribed by this tour ist to the abjuration of opium , as exacted of them in accordance with the prescribed rule of military ser vice. 21. The Rajpoots (that soldier -class whose meat and drink one might alniost say is opium ), when the morning preceding an expected battle has come, take

a double charge of the stimulant, and thus fortified

they are able to confront their enemy as with a wall of fire, never receding, never yielding , but like tigers fighting on even to the death .

The martial impetu

osity of the Turk, so diverse from his habitual apathy of demeanor at home, is wakened up by similar in citements, just as “ Dutch courage” on the Zuyder Zee is provoked by draughts of Schiedam . The Moslem

soldier, says Barbier, in anticipation of an onslaught to be made upon a host in the field or upon a be

leaguered town, prepares himself with an extra of the

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Opium .

kind. This “ bello vivida virtus” is thus portrayed

by Byron in his “ Siege of Ismail :” . “ And one enormous shout of • Allah !' rose In the samemoment, loud as e 'er the roar Of war's most mortal engines, to their foes

Hurling defiance ; city, stream , and shore Resounded , • Allah !' and the clouds, which close With thickening canopy the conflict o ’er, Vibrate to the Eternal Name: Hark ! through

All sounds it pierceth — Allah, Allah, Hu!' ”

22. During the month Ramadan or April (the Mo hammedan Lent-season ),when no food of any descrip tion can be swallowed between sunrise and sunsetting

on pain of anathematization,this sort of device is often

practised : two or perhaps three opium -pellets (hash isch is sometimes combined ), folded together concen

trically, yet so that each is inclosed in its separate wrapper, are thus swallowed in mass, to undergo

successive solutions in the stomach. The great poet of his day, who was wont to see with his own eyes whatever was worth the seeing and describing,makes a brief allusion in the following lines : “ Just at this season Ramazani's fast Through the long day its penance did maintain ;

But when the lingering twilight-hour was past,

Revel and feast resumed the rule again .”

23. Certain anomalous uses to which opium has been applied - for it is a kind of double-edged tool

thatmust be handled cautiously every way, a some

thing “ dextraque lævaque a parte timendum ” — may be properly adverted to here.

In those Eastern

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149

countries where tortures are self-inflicted by way of penance, opium (or it may be bang , one or both ) is

the common preparative. There was the fakir that came under Heber's notice in India ,who in his jour neyings around was wont to exhibit to the gaping

crowd his tongue pierced with a bodkin . The Hindu widow was prepared for the suttee by a drugging of

the same sort. The dervishes of 'Etolia , says Tour

nefort, undergo a like discipline, and then run the gauntlet between flaming torches, severely scorched, but apparently indifferent to pain .

At Delhi and

other Indian capitals, where effeminate rajahs, the degenerate representatives of the great Timúr, long held nominal sovereignty , but where petticoated neuters really guided the reins, there once obtained a

practice of this kind. To obviate the rivalry for the succession that was very sure to arise among a large

household of superfluous princes of the blood, there was hit upon the device of reducing them to the con

dition of imbecility through a systematic training upon opium from childhood forward. At Stamboul they used a more expeditious instrument, the bowstring.

Aurungzebe had an invention of his own devising,an opiated elixir, poust so called, which he was wont to commend as a morning -draught to obnoxious cour

tiers and suspected sultanas. Such potion,while less repulsive to appearance, was none the less efficacious

than the glaive of the Capidji-bachi, or than the sack and a fast anchorage in the Bosphorus.

24. Exploitations upon opium here at home have thus far taken less of the tentative form , but then the 13 *

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Opium.

likelihood is we shall be able from time to time to “ report progress.” The same element used by the pen-painter to heighten the coloring of the “ horrible and awful,” and that supplies puffiness to the plat

form -spouter in his laborings upon the forcible-feeble oforatory, may serve equally well the purpose of the astute drover for “ putting into condition " a limpsy

bullock before his exhibition at Bull's-head, or that of the stable-jockey in getting up his spavined jade for a third appearance at Tattersall's: just as in India teamsters and farriers contrive to give to a hide nat urally coarse and rough a sleeky look and feel, or to infuse a mettlesomevigor into the flabby muscles of a

spent animal by a liberal administration of poudre arsenicale (Morewood).

CHAPTER XIV. THE CAUSES AND OCCASIONS.

“ His alias poteram et plures subnectere causas.” — JUVENAL. “ Give you a reason on compulsion ! If reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I would not give you a reason on compulsion ." Henry IV .

1. The Causes may be distinguished in a twofold classification , — the physical and the moral. Under the former division range neurotic and arthritic mala dies, such as hold the body in a close gripe, e.g. rheumatism , dysenteric drains, hæmorrhoidal tumors, and with the sex cancerous growths, a retarded con

valescence following acute disease, hysteria. Occa

sional incitants are, paucity of food coupled with the overworking of body or mind either, the familiar use

of some nursery- cordial, a vicarious interchange with alcoholics. Dr. Christison had a lady -patient, then

twenty -five years of age, using daily at the time of morphine (to which she had been habituated in child hood by a nurse) 15 grains. Contrary to all pre sumption , there was not any sensible deterioration of

the natural vigor. . Dr. Palmer has traced the habit ,

as established in three youths, to precisely the same sort of early habituation . ( 151 )

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Opium .

2 . A case (not an unusual one) originating in uterine disease with a cystic complication, is communicated

by Dr. G . W . Hanna, of Monroe county, New York. Mrs. B ., a widow of thirty -four years and a mother ( a woman of superior gifts and fine presence still,

though opium has made its inroads), began with laudanum as a palliator of pain simply , and in this

way got confirmed in her habits. This course has gone on now six years, and the quantity at present used is, according to her own statement, half an ounce on some days, — on others twice as much ; and in deed it is safe to say the latter amount is within the mark ; for whereas she formerly procured her supply in the neighborhood, now she sends to a city ten

miles off, and no doubt to create a false impression that should operate as a blind among her neighbors.

Having been repeatedly admonished by the doctor that it was “ sink or swim ” with her, she has made repeated attempts at reform , but ineffectually. Lately

she had held out for three days, having had none of

her drug in the house for so long ; but the prospect is unpropitious, and the more as another stimulus has been superadded .

The care of a young family ,

now devolved upon herself alone, doubtless co -ope rates in aggravation of the primary cause. 3. In the life social, where not dress and etiquette alone, but religion besides, acknowledges fealty to

fashion, diseases too assume putative shapes in cor respondence with some prevailing idea , a “ vox om

nibus una” nominally, be the real type what it may. At one period all maladies merge into dyspepsia ;

The Causes and Occasions.

153

again liver-complaint dominates, or neuralgia is of ton . Two cases, whose locale was the goodly city ofGotham , are here presented to a “ discerning pub

lic,” partly for their intrinsic value, partly for their extrinsic significance in bringing forth to the light some of the arcana of science.

4 . First is Miss R ., a spinster of thirty -five years,who was being treated for some rheumatic symptom which

had found opportune shelter under themore fashion able name.

This patient, in homeopathic hands at

the time, was using daily three packets of a some thing, one of which made her one day strangely

stupid . The new physician, Dr. L ., took a powder

to Adamson of the College of Pharmacy for analyza tion. The product was one and one- fourth grains of

morphine, showing that the said subject was taking three grains and three-quarters of the alkaloid daily , - quite other than infinitesimal doses plainly. A

timely change intercepted a course that would ere long have been fastened beyond change.

5 . The fellow to this case was Mr. B., a gentleman of middle age,whose complaint, a sub-inflammatory affection of the hip - neuralgia again , or the old friend in a new face. . This patient was being put through the granule-disciplineby those distinguished

scientists of the Hahnemannic school, Messieurs les Docteurs F . and P .* According to prescription , this

patientwas taking powders varying, for differentdays, * « Arcades ambo,

Et cantare (in -cantare ?) pares, et respondere parati.” — VIRGIL.

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Opium .

from six to nine, one of which , having been sub

mitted to examination as was done in the preceding case , yielded one grain and a half nearly ofmorphine

proper, the addendum being saccharum lactis. This “ running the machine” had gone on for five weeks, when Drs. P. and L . were invited to assume the

charge. 6 . Opium is frequently used against chronic mala dies, either as a palliative proper or vicariously of

other medicines of more questionable efficacy, and themore especially for the purpose of procuring sleep

under nervous agitation. An instance in illustration was Mrs . W . (the late), a lady of a New England city, who, having been married soon after attaining

her majority to a “ fast man,” thereby became an in valid for the remnant of her life , that is unto her 37th

year. The physical contamination , the “ fons et origo mali,” innocently contracted on her .part (the real nature of which she was never perhaps made fully cognizant of), was one of those whose tendency is to grow with advancing time rather than to die out with a definite lapse of time. Constipation early es

tablished was ever a grievous annoyance, even with the moderate alleviation afforded by purgatives and the syringe. Extreme nervousness , with paroxysms of hysteria , had expression in the most wild and in

congruent extravagances ; and as fór sleep, that was irregular of course and never refreshing. The face presented an edematous fulness and a putty- like

hue, and this with the eye fitfully glaring in its strange wildness, told of the internal commotion

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more forcibly than tongue could give utterance to.* The symptoms and habits of this patient were famil iarly known to Dr. S ., of whom she had made her

purchases for ten years continuously . Here is the rescript of articles prepared regularly for her use the

last two years of her life : Of Magendie's solution 4 ounces, of laudanum

4 ounces, of morphine 24

grains combined in pill-form with 36 of guaiacum , so much altogether for every 2 days, the equivalent for a single day of 52 grains ofmorphine. 7 . Another case, having its origin in a physical

cause , is from Dr. Pitcher.

Mrs. R ., daughter of

Mrs. A . (vide chap. xi– 7), 35 years of age at the present date , was married at 20. To this point fair health , barring a slight menstrual irregularity, had been enjoyed without any notable variation ,but from

this time, or soon after, a severe vaginismus had

become established. To mitigate this symptom the husband (an apothecary) had supplied her freely with morphine, and so by -and -by the habit became per petuated. Impregnation had at no time occurred .

8 . The woman was not seen again for the space of four years, but after this interval she was perceived to be in a changed condition. The primal irritation had passed away, but a constitutional obstruction was

found to have succeeded , and besides a growing taste for alcoholic liquors had been freely indulged. There had been , notwithstanding, no pretermission of the opium . The two stimuli have been continued , going * “ Et taciti fecere tamen convicia vultus." -- Ovid.

Opium .

156

on in friendly companionship for eight years now .. The immediate effects of the conjunction were, an impaired appetite for food, and a waning of the moral sense . In evidence of the latter change was the fact, that an intense jealousy had taken possession of her

imagination. The mental pathologic condition was of that kind which Brierre de Boismont denominates a folie raisonnante . Her propensities, as evidenced

in her habitual conduct, appeared more and more in contrast with her ordinary discourse as timewent on ,

for her conversational gifts as once displayed were of a very superior order. The present condition is this. The whiskey having been suspended she takes food with a relish ; and, besides being unhampered by a multiplicity of household cares, she goes abroad

much in the open air. Her consumption of morphine

for a month together amounts to 12 drachms, with scarcely a variation for such period .

9. The case suggests several inquiries. Was the cause a remote rather than a proximate cause, a

hereditary proclivity that is, or was there an exciting

cause only , the peculiar condition that had ensued upon the new relation ? or was it thematernal exam ple that had operated as the main force ? or rather may not all the supposed conditions have coalesced

in joint operation ? . “ Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.” 10. A very efficient, but as is to be hoped , a very occasional cause at themost is the solitary vice, “ illud sine nomine crimen,” but which was, as confessed , a

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The Causes and Occasions.

co -operating influence in one of the instances included in our enumeration.

A pretext for the procuring of

laudanum in particular, not unfamiliar to the apothe cary, is the pretended need of a liniment. Jones of

B . had for several years a regular visitor, who required 6 to 8 ounces weekly on account of “ neuralgia in

the knee.” The liquid was regularly applied, no doubt, but to the epithelial lining of the esophagus rather, and not to the cutaneous surface.

This is

orthodox practice, going upon the principle of metas tasis or sympathetic transference. An ingenious ex

cuse is oftentimes as good a passport as any.*

II. In the inventory of proximate causes a very liberal share is set down to the credit of the Faculty ; if not beyond their deserts yet in the very face of their disclaimers. Too indiscriminately perhaps have they been pronounced in juridical parlance accessories

before as well as after the fact. Some there are who prescribe opiates as a convenience under a pressing exigency, or as a cover to ignorance and to gain time in awaiting a more distinct evolution of symptoms,

callous to the conviction that they may be “ sowing

dragons' teeth meanwhile that shall by-and-by leap forth in their retributive power as armed men ” (Van Deusen ). Who can wonder that the sufferers (and

those of the sex the more),worn down as they get to be in body and abject as they become in spirit

from perpetuated disease, are so cager in their ex tremity to surrender themselves into the hands of * “ Ficta, voluptatis causâ , sunt proxima veris.” – Ovid . 14

Opium .

158

unconscionable charlatans, seeing that even “ Satan can transform himself into an angel of light?” 12. A case in point is from Moreton .

The patient,

a woman ofthirty -five, in the full enjoyment of robust

health before, became, through toilings incident to the care of children with domestic infelicities super added , a subject for the doctor's attention. Laudanum was prescribed as the cure-all, and by the end of five

years about it turned out the end-all ; for by this time the subject was utterly broken down past recovery . 13. The leading moral incitements - none the less various than the physical,and in potential force often surpassing them — are, perplexities in business , the re verses of fickle fortune, tædium vitæ as from conjugal désagréments , “ The chilling heaviness of heart From loss of love, the treachery of friends, Or death of those we dote on ,"

self-abandonment to a career of sensualism or crime,

are as urgent as any. In every instance there is some pretended necessity put forward ,when the real and sole reason — the “ causarum prima exordia ” — may be the passion for the stimulus itself and nothing else (Day).

14. Among the occasional causes should be specified what Forbes Winslow has denominated a " psycho

logical romance,” those “ Fine Confessions, That make the reader envy the transgressions,"

as saith the poet of Newstead concerning St. Augus tine. When rhapsody shall have assumed the garb

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159

of earnest truth and romance shall have taken the impress of history, then may it be expected of De Quincey 's Confessions, draped as they are in a pris

matic gaudiness of attire, that they shall work upon the unsuspecting reader as cautionary dissuasives ( as they do not) rather than as provoking appetizers (as they do). There is yet to be reported the very first exceptional case . That these “ confessions to the fact” have directly encouraged tentative trials upon

the same line of experiment is now very certainly known from independent counter-confessions. 15 . The Rev. Walter Colton , late a chaplain in the U . S . Navy,having read out of curiosity De Quincey's narrative at a time when he happened to be on the

Mediterranean station , was tempted to make a trial of opium in his own person . The dose was inordi

nately large, and the effect appears to have been in proportion. “ Soon lost to the realities of the outside world (so runs the narrative) for two days and two nights continuously , I awoke at length confused in

mind and exhausted in body, having been recalled to my proper self, but only through the assiduous and untiring attentions and soothings ofmybosom -friend.

* * *

Let no one like me venture encounter with

the dreamy ecstasies, the agonizing terrors of the

opium -dream ; it is like scaling the battlements of heaven , only to make a desperate plunge into the

fiery pit below."* 16 . Blair, the omnivorous bookworm , “ who while * Vide Knickerbocker Magazine, 1836 .

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Opium .

yet a youth lived upon ale, opium , brandy, and books,” was led to experiment upon himself in the same way and from the same persuasion (Knicker bocker, 1842). An attempt at abandonment, made after a time and in evident earnest, had brought him down from 80 grains to 17 grains ; but here he stuck fast ; for though his constipation had relaxed, and comfortable sleep to the extent of two hours and more had returned,nevertheless the ravenous gnaw ing in the stomach reviving compelled him to work

up to his maximum again . Discouragements besides, growing out of irregular occupation and pecuniary embarrassments , appear to have disheartened him altogether, and we hear of him last being about to leave the country for his London homeagain . Many an Ephraimite is thus “ joined to his idols.”

17. To the misuse of the pen, chargeable against De Quincey ,must be superadded the weightier re

sponsibility of domestic example.* A sister of his, living under the same roof, followed in his wake, and so perseveringly as to have become in the course of

a few years as spell-bound under the enchantment

as he himself was (Sinclair). Five similar instances of daughters following the pernicious course of the mothers have come under the direct cognizance of the writer. Such in its plenitude is the power of example, -

“ Example, that imperious dictator Of all that's good or bad in human nature.” * “ Velocius et citius nos

Corrumpunt exempla domestica.” — JUVENAL.

CHAPTER XV. CLASS, AGE, AND SEX. “ Aequa lege Necessitas

Sortitur insignes et imos.” — HORACE. “ Every one can master a grief buthe that hath it.” — Much Ado ABOUT NOTHING .

1. In China the habit was originally confined to the belted gentry , gentlemen of fortune and other exclusives proper ; but in progress, tradesmen , arti sans, and laborers, and then priests and women, soon caught the infection , until finally all distinctions de

termined by caste or condition were obliterated.

2 . First to break over the interdicts as decreed by imperial authority, were the very class who from their social position should have been foremost in

good example, the mandarins. “ Now (says Morel) speculators, the overworked and impoverished classes, the sick and the physically infirm , all seek in the

powerful narcotic a deliverance from the present recollection of their misfortunes and miseries, such as they vainly search for in themoralities of Confucius.” Hong -merchants, who have come to naught in their

commercial negotiations, are found generally to have broken down on the chandoo ; and as was the case of theMogulemperors,who sank into sloth and defile 14 * ( 161)

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Opium .

ment through their extravagant passion for the stim

ulus, in a like degree debased are the Shirdars of the Sikh country to -day. This latter class have for their own particular use a spirituous compound, under the stupefaction from which , says Dr. Macpherson, they often pass eighteen hours out of the twenty -four.

3. At the papan -mera (opium -shops), in Malacca,

the pirates of the Coast use pellet or pill indifferently, and à l'abandon . So the sailors attached to the junks, (Surgeon Smith ), after “ laying up ” for the night, get

regularly inebriated on their opium . As for the

province of Rajpootana, there is no distinction here , for the people are opium -eaters all,men , women and children too.

In regard to the Chinese women it

must be allowed to their credit, that prostitutes only (a large class certainly ) are given to the vice (Smith ),

but such is the passion with the male sex generally , they will have their opium even if it cost its weight in silver.

4 . In England, the toilers in the smitheries , and themidnight relays at the factory-looms,are conspic uous. The unfortunates too, who find temporary refuge in the lying -in hospitals, as Dr. Reid declares, are often addicted to laudanum , and to spirits besides. Exemption in families appears to be determined as much by class- distinction, though not in precise cor

respondence, as in China. 5 . In reference to Europe at large no particular sec

tion appears to have caught the infection, unless France be accounted a partial exception. On the

Continent no distinct class perhaps could be specified ,

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163

unless perchance some of the cloistered brother

hoods.

Paris, however, not to be behind in inno

vations, is said , on Tiedemann 's authority , to have within her bounds an inaugurated society of opium smokers (Opiophiles, as they style themselves), who

have their nightly reunions, and a journal provided for the recording of any notable individual experi ences.

6 . Our home-classification wears a very diversified aspect. Some get into the habit fortuitously rather; others gravitate the same way , as if determined by some occult impulse. Prominent in the ranks are the squadrons of littérateurs (they “ of imagination

all compact” included), such as live by brain -labor, and especially those who execute their work by in stalments more, — representatives of the professions, itinerating trumpeters of the Orator-Puff grandilo quent, lackadaisical idlers, who have forgotten the

primeval rule as “ when Adam delved and Eve span,” wine-bibbers, who would fain discard an old acquaint ance for an untried novelty, the lady of haut-ton, idly

lolling upon her velvety fauteuil and vainly trying to cheat the lagging hours that intervene ere the " clock work tintinnabulum ” shall sound the hour for opera or whist, the quasi-lady of the demi-monde as well, whose life has been a vicissitudinous fluctuation be tween affluence and unconcern at the one extreme

and mischance and anguish of spirit at the other, and whose hard fortune now is “ To know the light but by its parting smile , And toil, and strive, and wish , and weep awhile;"

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Opium .

and last, if last in order yet numerically outflanking all the rest, the invalid throngs as they course

along, “ not in single files but in battalions,” to be amused anew and to be decimated over and over by noisy nostrum -mongers and braggadocio pseudo mantists .

7. The list of exempts comprises agriculturists gen erally , and mariners universally, artisans also largely

(but of soldiers less), and the immigrant peasantry from the Green Isle and the Rhine-borders almost to a man (Cassabeer). In view ofsocial position the pre ponderance, if any, has a patrician leaning ; in the

division by sex the women have themajority . Ab solute security there is nowhere against the wiles of this adversary, opium ; no position however exalted, no principles however stable , guarantee any certain protection ; neither does exemption in the past give

promise of security in the future. Thurman had for a customer one time a young mechanic not yet out

of his apprenticeship , who on the way to his work in the morning was in the habit of calling regularly

for his ounce -draught of laudanum , besides the extra ounce or two ounces which he took away with him . This youth , novice as he was, could not

begin upon his day's-work until thus fortified ; and in this way he continued for months, until his re moval one day to the hospital for a fractured limb. To no age is accorded an absolute exemption, but the medium period lies between the 30th and the 35th year. 8. Other classes there are subject to like habits, but

Class, Age, and Sex.

165

in very disproportionate numbers. The frequenters of the faro-table affect gin and other liquors; the pen

chant of the modern sibyl or clairvoyant is thought to be opium rather. The Cyprians who perambulate Broadway by gas- light are reliant upon laudanum in extremity not only , but partial to the same for its

stimulating power. Loines reckons that two-thirds

of the class become habituated eventually to opium in some form ; itmay be laudanum , or as likely mor phine, going to the amount of 5 grains of the latter for the daily dose.

In N . Y . their purchases are

made on the Avenues chiefly , and besides they par take habitually and largely of strong liquors. A young man, an apothecary on Union Square, gives similar testimony regarding the courtesans of Sa

vannah . These accounts square very precisely with

the observations of Dr. Quackenbos; who remarks further, that the aggregate of instances among women in high place is incredibly large.

9 . Highly redounding to the credit of the clerical order is the general fact that the cases which come to light are “ far between and few .” There was known to Farwell, twenty yearsago and more, a Long-Island pastor, who was given to opium but only very irreg ularly , and who at the extreme never exceeded, and

indeed seldom went up to, a half-drachm of morphine for the week ; and sometimes he would intermit for

several days together. So inconsiderable and tran sient was the effect that only a few of his parishioners were at all aware of his failing. Redwine of Atlanta ( a large dealer) had seen but one such in all his

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Opium .

region , and this person had made his beginning upon whiskey. 10 Lawyers, and particularly advocates proper, re

sort to opium not seldom in a great exigency (Quack

enbos), but the proportion among them is less than is commonly supposed. The brokers of Wall-Street antagonize one sort of excitement, the gold -fever, with another, a stimulating opiate. II. There is one distinguished professional class , the Thespian corps, who, in reference to their sup

posed addiction to stimuli of one or another name, have been most flagrantly and unjustly scandalized. Dr. Quackenbos, who has been associated for a life

time officially as well as informally with the drama and its actors, declares most positively and unre

servedly of the great lights that have adorned from year to year the New York stage, that they use neither opium nor tobacco in any form , not one of them even ; and that as to spirituous stimuli, such

are never taken to the green-room , nothing being used there stronger than porter, and that only for present support under the exhaustion incident to the

efforts of the evening. 12. There is a fraternity, the doctors in physic and chirurgery, who for reckless temerity in the use of opium , when perchance they have once made the venture, challenge the boldest operators. One such - a specimen -brick - is here presented to view upon

the testimony of Mr. L ., who knew him and his ways familiarly and long. Dr. J. S ., after a successful début at Edinburgh , came to our metropolis and here es

Class, Age, and Sex .

167

tablished his residency. In his professional capacity he continued to bear himself well, until adverse asso ciations gradually formed had converted him by ten

years ' time from a sober and industrious man into a

habitual bacchanalian . This was thirty years ago. From brandy,his first familiar acquaintance,he passed on to laudanum , and of this he was in the habit of purchasing eight ounces every three or four days. Getting desperate after awhile he resolved on a voy

age around the Horn, to try what an enforced absti nence and time together might do for his case. The calm was only a lull in the storm ; the “ old Adam ” revived now that he was ashore in San Francisco . After no long sojourn he re - embarked for home

again ,pocket exhausted and spirit broken, to become a wanderer in the Babel-wilderness, without other

reliance in the way of supply than what chance- charity proffers. Wretched without his opiate and scarcely less wretched when possessed of it,whatever is offered, be it a little dose or a bigger one, he will clutch at as with a wolfish ravenousness. “ Whether the tree fall toward the south or toward the north , in the place

where the tree falleth there it shall lie .”

13. To speak comprehensively of that large division of our integral population , them whose pre-eminent office it is to do the thinking for the rest ofmankind,

something more in special is worthy of note. “ There is much reason for believing (observes Dr. Lee) that the practice of using opium for regular and habitual stimulation in the hours of labor has extensively ob tained in the professional schools of the United States,

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Opiuin .

and among our students at large and the literati gen

erally . The usual amounts for the day are of opium two grains, or in lieu thereof half a grain ofmorphine or two drachms of laudanum .” Are our Senatus Academici aware of such fact, or are they too impli cated in common ?

14 . Two names there are, celebrities in their re spective spheres, though of unequal fame, that, con trary to presumption , have no connection (or next to

none) with opium ; and these are Byron and Cowper. That these two poets, in whose constitution was de veloped so conspicuous a blending of themelancholic with the nervous element, the very temperament

which constitutes the peculiar heritage of the “ genus irritabile” as if by right of primogeniture, that they should have gone on through life uninfected by the habit, is a fact that viewed psychologically might seem incredible. The gentle recluse more likely es caped the sin through ignorance ; the fiery hypo

chondriac appears to have been unsusceptible of the

morbid impression. In a letter to Moore, 1821, thus he speaks : “ I can bear a good deal of wine without

exhilaration , though itmakes me suspicious, quarrel some, and savage ; laudanum has a similar effect, or

oftener none at all.” 15. Strange would be the developments, monitory the lessons suggested, mightwe be permitted some times to catch an interior glimpse of the motives and purposes that sway the minds of certain princes and

legislators now casting their shadows upon the pres ent age, whose selves are bound in subjection to that

Class, Age, and Sex.

169

insidiousbut overmastering power, the demon opium . The subtle machinations of an Antonelli, the impet uous wranglings of a Plon -plon , the wily maneu vrings of a Prim , — to see them such as indeed they

are and not such as they seem “ Oh wad some power the giftie gie us!”

CHAPTER XVI. THE POSOLOGY OF OPIUM . “ Exempla - quorum meturba fatigat.” — OVID .

“ Letmehave a drachm ofpoison. Sweetdraught!- Sweet,quotha? O fool ! that now as luscious as locusts, shall shortly be in thy mouth as bitter as coloquintida !” — ROMEO AND JULIET.

I. By those who have studied the “ Ars nihili credendi," many of the statements recorded in this chapter will be transferred to the column of the incredibilia ; but

there is ample authentication behind nevertheless. Van Swieten refers to a dose of 16 grains as some thing extraordinary ; Garcias (Morewood) knew a

woman in Turkey, of good intelligence and of a conversational turn, who informed him her daily con sumption was 10 drachms (!) or 1 /4 ounces. Hufe

land mentions a 30 -gramme dose, one ounce less

half a drachm . As a measure of effect, however, it should be understood the apothecary 's scales are but

a very insufficient criterion . 2. Extremes. - Initial doses vary from a fraction of a grain upward ; but amateurs start more boldly , as in

the instance of a Chicago youth, who began upon 3 grains ofmorphine,and ran his course proportionably

fast. Surgeon Smith names 5 grains of the chandoo for the neophyte ; 290 he has known in the case of the veteran. Libermann , in the Chronique Médicale , ( 170 )

The Posology of Opium .

171

has given a tabulated summary of a thousand smokers, of whom he kept a record while he was in China en

gaged in the imperial service, as here classified : Of

the thousand, 646 vary between 1 and 8 grammes, 250 between 10 and 20, and the remaining 104 range from 30 to 100 grammes. (The higher extreme seems

scarcely credible, and perhaps the text should read grains.) The thériakis of Eupatoria not unfrequently

go to 100 grains ; the hamals (porters) of Constanti nople not seldom use an entire ounce. .

3. The " big doses” are restricted by no lines of longitude. Dr. Hawkins was informed by a druggist

of an eastern county in England concerning a farmer there ,who one day came into the shop,asking for an ounce and a half of laudanum . This having been swallowed was after a brief time followed by a second draught, and again by a third , and several ounces

besides were purchased for taking home. This “ ope rator” was plainly of the new - school progressives.

4. But in bold practice New York city and the rest may safely challenge Birmingham , or Paris, or Canton. A woman of Atlanta (a buyer for a con siderable time, and if she ain 't gone she lives there

still) sends her daughter with the two-ounce vial for laudanum

three times a day regularly (Redwine).

The cause thereunto moving had been a proclivity to “ spiritual liquor.” Wayne gives an instance of 6 ounces ; Eimer of the same quantity daily repeated 34 of a pint. 5 . Paregoric and McMunn come in for their share in the awarding ofhonors . Besides the quart-measure

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Opium .

case (chap. xxi.) are pint cases in plenty by Shedden ,

Lee, S . Smith ,and others. McMunn also talks loud. Dr. Lente knows a woman at Cold Spring,who buys for the week three dozens of bottles. A gentleman who was making a purchase on Union Square one day, declared of himself that he used up, one day

with another, 12 bottles. Dr. L . had seen and pre

scribed for a youth (as he then was), who, having become habituated to strong drink provided by inju dicious friends for a lingering diarrhea of his, had

found in this elixir a present quietive for symptoms threatening delirium tremens. On a certain day he was known positively to have taken six bottles. This case, however, is thrown into shade altogether by a record at Binghamton , that of a lawyer, a détenu at

the Asylum there half a dozen years since,whose totality was by his own record 3200 bottles, and for

a certain day one and two-thirds dozens, the equiva lent of a pint of laudanum within one ounce.

6 . Morphine demands a separate section. MacGil livray's patient has been noted already (chap. xii.). Dr. Gill of London had on his hands one time a pro fessor of vegetarianism (50 years old actually , but, judged by his attenuated limbs and parchment skin

20 years ahead of that mark ), whose stated supply was 55 grains. The allowance having been cut down flesh was substituted for porridge and cabbage, and in no long space Mr. Witherskin was able to make a much improved show in the outer man . A third

drachm case is from Redwine, that of a brother “ fallen from his high estate," who had pioneered upon

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whiskey . A fourth case is of a German woman lately

in the hands of Naumann , who by a gradual progres sion through several years had finally reached one drachm precisely, at which mark she stood a consid erable time. This person cured herself by pursuing,

at the suggestion of Mr. N . (a very intelligent drug gist), the gradative course. The weekly diminutions

were made by grain and two-grain reductions in al ternation .

7. A fifth case is communicated by Mr. Leys of Brooklyn, and the detail is a precise transcript of the record.

A woman thirty -five years old at the time

of her death , wife and mother both , had been a regu lar purchaser for the six years precedent to her demise, though a consumer for several years earlier.

Of medium embonpoint and with a fair countenance, she would scarcely have attracted casual attention otherwise than by the half-averted but lustrous eye.

In regard to constipation hers was an exceptional

case, nor was the final sickness (which was of the acute type) obviously traceable to her morbid habit. The dose for the first month of the six years was 16 grains (in the form of Magendie's solution ), which

quantity had doubled by six months and quadrupled by the time a year had run.

This 16 grains per

month had grown by the end of the fourth year to 16 grains per day, and in another year to 20 grains.

For the first half of the sixth year the progress was from 20 up to 30 grains ; during the final six months one drachm was the measure, regularly called for as

the morning came. 15 *

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Opium .

8. Number six is Mr. B ., a prominent druggist in the metropolis, æt. 49,the subject of a severe chronic diarrhea for half a dozen years. Morphine, which ,

like Chorcebus penetrating the Grecian phalanx now within Ilion's towers after assuming the helmet of

the slain Androgeos, a pretended friend while an enemy in disguise, was early employed for its supposed

curativeefficacy (and indeed always to the presentmiti gation of symptoms, for “ without it his bowels would run away from him ”),but the benefit derived has ever been of ephemeral continuance only. No notable emaciation is observable as yet, nor has the general

health becomematerially impaired. Magendie's solu tion ( 16 grains to the ounce ) is the form , and this is taken, an ounce for the time, in very precise measure,

to the extent perhaps of four times that in the day, or again a pint may last the week through. He has been known to have his ounce four times in the day,

and an additional one at his private office, i.e. 80 grains ( = 1 /3 drachms) of the salt. In the general

way, morphine to the amount of 15 grains is no un common dose ; 30 to 36 grains is with rare exceptions the limit. 9. Gravity of action may be as disproportioned to

quantity as is the case of alcoholics. An instance of idiosyncrasy referable to this section is given by

Dr. Barnes. The occasion was an existing diarrhea. With the approbation of a doctor opium had been

used daily for three weeks,by the end of which time, “ although the flux was subdued the opium was not

subdued .”

The medicine acted strangely , kindling

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up a fire in the stomach as it seemed, so that for another three weeks nothing swallowed would lie , rice-water excepted, and all the vital powers seemed

to be flagging. A year having proceeded in this

manner, a change to the right-about was resolved on . Agonies and horrors followed upon the breaking up, to abate only by littles, but success was secured-at last.

For a time from the first, but for a brief period only,

a sort of ideal tranquillity , a visionary happiness fol lowed each dose, but the subsequent experience was the reverse of all this. The recollection of the suffer ings had survived as vividly twenty- five years after as if they had been of yesterday. The dose (the gum was used ) had at no time exceeded four grains.

10. The caprices of single doses taken for a special occasion are even more variant and strange than the operations under continued use . Ofminimum doses of fatality there have been noted (as already men tioned ) 372 grains of the gum (Grisolle ), a grain of

morphia , and half an ounce of laudanum , and there have been even less than these. Maximum doses of tolerance are the very antipodes of such . Recovery

has followed upon the ingestion of 30 and 60 grains of the gum , and once after 212 drachms had been

swallowed. Instances of like result are recorded of

morphia in doses of 30, 55, 60, and even 75 grains, and after laudanum , as in two cases, where 5 ounces had been taken , and in a third where the quantity

was 6 ounces.* * VideHammond's Journal of PsychologicalMedicine,vol. ii., iv,5 .

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Opium .

II. The records of practice in disease are yet more astounding. Doses fearlessly used at this day for various forms of organic derangement would only a half-century since have staggered the boldest. For

instance, Pinel allowed a woman at La Charité, far gone with cancer uteri, 120 grains of solid opium for the twenty -four hours , and greatly to the alleviation

ofsymptoms. M .Marc, in the Gazette de Paris , gives a similar case. His patient on one of the days took

62 grains of morphine. Monges and La Roche of Philadelphia had such a patient,whose allowance her last three months was 3 pints of laudanum for a day and a night, with some pure opium extra. For a

urethral malformation a woman under Zaviani con sumed in the progress ofthirty -four years 200 pounds of the solid and above. On some days 200 grains was her mark . Dr. Knight of New Haven once had a patient with uterine cancer, who used daily and for

a very considerable time, and without prejudice also , a drachm of morphine at least, and from that even

up to 3 drachms. Bellevue Hospital records make a show ahead even of these. In a case of puerperal

peritonitis occurring in 1862, Dr. Clark administered in the course of seven days various preparations, equivalent altogether to 274 ounces of opium proper, and on one of the days 472 grains, an ounce to within a fraction . 12. Medium doses.

Rev. G . Smith , an English

missionary, made a tour of observation one day around Amoy, having Lim -pai, a reformed opium eater, for cicerone, with the following results. Upon

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questioning ten persons as met indiscriminately and at random , he found their average to be i mace or 60 grains. The general average he ascertained to be 3 candareens (= 1772 grains) of the chandoo (Allen ).

The mean for Aleppo Russell puts at 3 drachms; a high figure certainly, even for the maw of a Turk .

Dr.Garrod, however, knew of a Turkish gentleman, a mere youth , who used one drachm in the morning

and the same repeated at night,besides the laudanum he took in the intervals, an ounce or more. At the

Pauper-house, Singapore, Dr. Little ascertained that of fifteen persons, smokers for periods varying from 3 to 20 and averaging II years, the medium dose was 32 grains. At the Mount-Hope Asylum 2 to 4

ounces of laudanum is nothing uncommon (Dr.

Stokes). Specific quantities are a drachm of the gum , I to 2 drachms of the salt, and a pint of the tincture , so much per week (Moore, Skey ). much with the pecuniary ability.

The dose varies A purchaser at

Giles's (such is a specimen -case) would get from time to time an ounce of laudanum only , it might be, and again twice or thrice that. Equability and modera

tion in dose is what is oftentimes but very capri ciously respected. A gentleman called one day at Tarrant's for a scruple of morphine; this, having dropped into a tumbler ofwater, he swallowed forth

with , with the intent, as was for the moment sus pected, of poisoning himself. All anxiety was soon

removed, however, by the stranger's explanation that “ such was his way.” 13. Gradual Advances. “ The small quantity (ob

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serves Dr. Little ) soon loses its effect, and to produce

the requisite excitement the little pea must be doubled and again increased, until, as I have known, the orig inal has got multiplied a hundredfold .”

A married

woman turned of 50, who began upon two ounces of laudanum for a week , has now , after a considerable

term , attained to the pint-mark (Leys).

A spinster

of 55 was several years in getting as high as 6 ounces

per week . Dr. Palmer reports two cases where the

weekly consumption was 2 drachms of morphine, and four others in which the quantity was half that.

Among his opium -cases was Mrs. O 'G ., addicted to the drug about forty years, who by very slow ad vances had reached at last two drachms for the week,

with the addition of a little whiskey taken as a prim ing. Another instance was Mrs. T., 50 years old at

her death ,who had been a consumer for nigh upon half of this term . She even in her latter years had not exceeded a drachm for the week to the very last year, but here the quantity was doubled. An extra interest attaches to this last case, in connection with the question of degeneracy . Of the two children

born subsequently to the confirmation of the habit, the elder, a son always feeble and sickly, died at fif

teen ; the daughter, contrarily to what might be expected , now eleven years old , has a robust and thriving aspect.

The patient died a year ago of

pneumonia . 14. A lady of Ontario county with whom thewriter

has conferred, Mrs. S., æt. 60 or above,mother now of several grown-up children, became an invalid ere

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she had completed her maiden life ; whereupon , with the concurrence of a physician , she sought relief in morphine. From the beginning through the entire

period the advances have been very gradual to a drachm for three weeks (the present limit); or if for any special exigency this amount has been at all ex -

ceeded, she has ever been careful to recover the lost ground, returning again to the fixed standard. No

othermedicine has been found upon trial to answer her needs by way of substitution.

Those common

sufferings, such as constipation , agrypnia and ugly dreams, have not been among her experiences, nor is there during the day any marked exhilaration , or

indeed any very definitely -pronounced characteristic , with the exception of the peculiar skin -hue and a somewhat toddling gait. A discontinuance was not advised.

15. Periodic augmentations in a ratio constantly in creasing are according to the normal course ; but then there are stages also of what may be called a

“ satisfied craving,” lasting for months or even years. Formiggini had a patient with a facial neuralgia that had come of caries of the maxilla , who used one gramme of morphine daily . This kept her system at

the saturation-point;but this precise quantity the lady must have — no less, no more; any excess she could not (or would not) tolerate, and if put on reduced allowance she became desperate (Revue de Paris ).

The Lancet, 1832, contains a case not dissimilar. In this instance hysteria was the objective malady .

A

woman , now of the respectable age of 50, used for

.

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Opium .

her measure 20 grains of the gum , so much precisely , day after day. (These hysterial cases require a good deal of humoring, particularly when spinsters are concerned who have arrived at a “ certain age,” that age of all ages themost uncertain .) Dr. S . S . sends the case of a woman twenty - five years old and mar

ried , who made a beginning upon laudanum in her 20th year. Lately she has kept herself strictly to 4 ounces for the twenty -four hours ; but “ this much

she will have at all events, even if she must beg for it or steal for it.” Jones had for a reputed customer an elderly lady of the Hudson River border some

where along, who purchased her supply of him for several years, sending a granddaughter (her deputy

in the transaction) once a month for the pint of lau danum . Like the rest she ceased by-and -by to make report representatively or otherwise. “ They come

and go,” as Dr. Guion says. A woman of mature age, an attendant at Eimer's for fifteen years continu ously there was, whose weekly purchase was what would make an average of half a drachm for a day.

There was also a teacher attached to one of the public schools in Brooklyn ,who was so careful of her ways, that shewas at the pains of crossing East River about

every four days, to get as many ounces of laudanum from a doctor at the West End (Mr. L .). Her general aspect all this time gave no indication of any pro gressing deterioration , nor was there so much as

constipation complained of. This person all at once ceased to reappear; whether it was that she had opened a new accountwith another doctor, or whether

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181

she had gone to settle an old account with death , did not transpire. Moderation in quantity and steadiness of dose are oftener observable perhaps in case of con genital infirmity or traumatic lesion ; for instance, when spinal irritation or an ununited fracture is the coexisting evil.

16 . Inconsiderable advances upon the existing dose

are seldom hazardous, where a large stride might prove critical. An inquest at Bradford , England, brought out the following facts : A woman with chronic asthma (one of those maladies that contra

indicate opium absolutely ) had taken a dose consid erably only a comes having

exceeding the usual one, causing her death few hours after. A second case to be adduced from Binghamton . A patient there was, who, strayed off to town one evening, felt disposed

to have a fresh sip of an old friend ; and so , having purchased two ounces of laudanum he swallowed the whole at once, - a quantity he had never ventured

on before. Dr. Day reached him , but not immedi ately , nor until the comatose stage had set in . The battery with other appropriate helps was put to ex peditious use, but to no purpose, for death had his victim the very same night. .

17. There was a New York lady, now of middle age, a custom -visitor at Bedford's for years together , who for the alleviation of an existing intra -pelvic

tumor had used morphine a long time, but in very definite and exactly -measured doses always. Her usage was to have the 48 grains (her amount for the

day ) divided into three-grain packets, so that the

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Opium .

times of recurrence should come with the expiration

of every hour and a half. One morning it appears, but for some reason not cleared up, she had put four of the divisions together for a single dose , thus having swallowed 12 grains instead of the 4 .

The stimu

lative action proper was overwhelmed by the pre dominant toxic force, and a fatal coma set in . 18. The rule of progressive cumulation reversed is

among the rarest of the rare, and asseverations made to fortify such pretensions must ever be taken cum grano salis, - i.l. at a very considerable discount.

There used to present herself very regularly at Goodall's a young woman with her four-ounce lau danum vial. That she used twice four ounces every day was manifest from a circumstance she did not

appear herself to have thought of,— the extra label that had been superadded at another shop. There was a merchant who had broken down upon Mc Munn , an irregular visitor at Gates's, who whenever

he called would drink off a vial of the elixir , and take away several of the same sort, for occasional

use only as he pretended, when doubtless he did the same thing at other druggeries. A Frenchman , known to Naumann for nineteen years, who all this time and even before had been familiar with lau danum , had a two-thirds-ounce vial, which he was

very particular to have filled once a day. The double labelling it was that exposed him . Long and freely

as this monsieur had been addicted to his stimulus,

he showed no distinctive indication of the habit other than in the peculiar sallowness of complexion . .

The Posology of Opium .

183

19. Devices intended for disguising the extent if not the fact of the enslavement are as ingenious and varied as the contrivers are numerous. Two con

siderations act as prompters to such course, — the sup

posed power of exerting a certain self-control over the paroxysmal excitement, and the apprehension of encountering a frowning public opinion in case the deception is unmasked. Miss P., a spinster of thirty

summers (and who was liable to continue such for as

many winters), had purchased of Loines in the course of two years (so the ledger showed) 13 gallons of

McMunn's solution, without enumerating the addi tional supplies she had certainly procured in the interims from other establishments. This course it

appears had been followed up so clandestinely all the while, that outside of her own family not a surmise

of the existing habit had found place even among the naturally credulous. Opium -eaters, if they can

not obviate suspicion altogether,may by the exercise

of a dextrous ingenuity often put this same suspicion on its good behavior. A nibble from the mass, a pinch from the packet or a sip from the vial may create no more wonder, than the brandy -flask slyly drawn from the pocket, or the delicate thumbing

of the rappee-box by the suaviter-faced tourist in the linen overall.

20. Reductions upon established doses, palpable in quantity if not of permanent continuance too, are to be reckoned among the actualities as well as the pos sibilities. De Quincey once fell back from his pro fessed maximum of 8000 drops to 1000 , and without

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Opium .

experiencing any considerable discomfort either. Mr. B .of the Hospital calculated upon personal trials, that

for real working service half an ounce of the gum or half a drachm of the alkaloid is as good as twice that. In the occasional use, amidst the daily avocations of business , it is possible to exercise much " prudence and discretion ,” what is in accordance with the views

of Dr. Pitcher (who appears to have a sharp eye for observation ), and also of Dr. Lee. The merchant, for instance, who feels the need of an extra stimulus

of some sort, by substituting a pill of opium in place of the half-gill ofwhiskey, is better able to work him

self out of the perplexities of the hour without at tracting the notice of some censorious neighbor, who is ever quick in discerning the mote in a brother 's

eye though unaware all the time of the beam in his own eye.

CHAPTER XVII. IS THE OPIUM -APPETITE QUALIFIEDLY VINCIBLE ?

“ Qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum Illuc, unde negant redire quenquam .” — CATULLUS.

“ A fog is not to be brushed away with a fan .” — JAPANESE.

1. Under existing physical debility,so impetuous are the longings for an adventitious stimulus of some sort, so various and plausible are the reasons alleged and the excuses offered for the using of such , so inge nious are the devices contrived for the secret procuring of supplies, and so convenient the subterfuges in ex

culpation of the factwhen suspicion can no longer be quieted nor detection anticipated and avoided, that the doctors have come to receive the protestations of parties implicated with a most skeptical distrust if not

with outright incredulity. The opium -habit particu larly , however carefully covered up against outside observation , must nevertheless drop its veil of con cealment when fairly submitted to the scrutiny of an

expert.*

The turbid complexion, the rugose skin ,

the shrunken limb, the frigid touch, the tremulous · * “ Cæcum vulnus habes, sed lato balteus auro Prætegit ; ut mavis, da verba et decipe nervos, Equidem si potis est.” — Persius. 16 *

( 185 )

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Opium .

gait, even the zigzaggery of muscular movement as viewed in the chirography alone, may serve as dis tinctive semeiotic indexes ; or if indeed these signs

be but faintly pronounced, yet the vivid sparklings and wild glancings of the half-averted eye, so pro

vokingly treacherous to the tongue and its figments , are “ confirmation strong" over any and all disguises. 2 . Concurrent testimony is irrefragable testimony.

Dr. Oppenheim , speaking for Western Asia , pro nounces the influence “ a fatal fascination , never to be

broken by any wily stratagem or open force whatso ever.”

Dr. Pidduck says of the opium -eater, that

" he can no more break away from his habit than the paralytic imbecile can throw off his lethargy.” Dr. Elliotson's declaration , that “ after diligent and ex

tensive inquiry he could not find the first instance of voluntary renunciation ,” is sustained by Dr. Palmer of Ontario , who “ had never known, not even by hearsay, of the first instance of permanent reforma • tion after the habit had become confirmed.” 3. In further attestation of the general conviction is

the declaration of Dr. N . Allen , one of our experts upon all questions pertaining to physiology and hy

geiene, and a scrutinizing inquirer withal, who thus

writes : “ I have known several of either sex, persons among the foremost for native talent and acquired gifts, who had succumbed to the fatal habit, not one ofwhom ever succeeded through the use ofwhatever

suggested remedy in breaking loose from the vice and recovering the lost ground.” Among the suf ferers he notes in particular a lady of superior endow

Is the Opium -Appetite Qualifiedly Vincible ? 187 ments and of exalted social position , the wife of a pro fessional gentleman, who has been addicted to mor

phine for 15 years,and who now (to speak in homely but pertinent phrase ) is about used up, or will be eventually, if we take the testimony of one who knows if anybody knows. The victim is as a care

less sleeper caught and entwined in the coils of a boa ; the grip is that of the Old Man of the Sea,who choked to death the unsuspecting wayfarer when once mounted astride his shoulders.

4 . Detection and exposure, though scarcely avoidable

in the end,may be averted or hindered for a season certainly . A woman of 30 , who had been upon lau danum for six years at the rate by -and-by of 4 ounces

a day, had contrived to keep her habit concealed for half this period even from the husband (Dr. S .). Verily truth is stranger than fiction — sometimes.

There is a Mr. C . also,who some months since came under the writer's personal inspection .

This man , a

mechanic, having contracted rheumatism in his earlier · life (for which he had been treated with calomel to

salivation),had resorted to opium as an alleviation of neuralgic pains ; going on to such an extent that his

physician finally gave him warning he must either break away from his opium or break down under it.

This was fifteen years back, and a very considerable reduction of dose was actually made through the next five years ; but increasing nervousness, and a super

added debility the consequence of a fistulous drain from one of the thighs, led to a revival of the habit in its pristine intensity nearly. There is an obvious

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Opiuin .

emaciation affecting the entire frame, but the coun tenance is anxious-looking rather than haggard .

The dose for a year (as pretended) has been one teaspoonful of laudanum , once repeated , for the day ;

but not unlikely an ounce rather than a quarter as much would express more nearly the truth in the matter. Besides there is in this instance ocular evi

dence that example has had its force of operation. 5 . Opium , an equivocal luxury in the beginning

daintily approached, becomes ere long under the clamorous demands of a perverted appetite a dire

alternative, a magisterially controlling power. Less rigid are the gyves, less galling the manacles that

hold fast the malefactor in his prison , than is that

bondage of the will-power which oppresses so over whelmingly the opium -devotee. The proximate cause of this moral enfeeblement is, a corporeal condition , a physical want, a power independent in itself and able to subordinate to itself the entire

mental machinery.

The dominant symptom is an

intense constriction , thoracic or abdominal as may be, as intolerable in its operation as it is uncontrol lable in its course. This pathologic state is thus ad verted to by Van Swieten : “ Alvus (opio familiariter

adhibito ) pertinacissime constringitur." Trousseau ( and Linsly also) has described the morbid change both minutely and accurately . " The patient awakes from his half-torpid slumbering to a revived con

sciousness again , with parched fauces, a brassy taste in the mouth and a blistered tongue perhaps; a

glacial coldness penetrates the entire frame-work

Is the Opium - Appetite Qualifiedly Vincible ? 189 while the body is bathed in sweat ; the visceral

organs are painfully compressed under the intense corrugation and constriction of the parietal inclo sures, or agitated with throbs as if they were being rent asunder , and profuse and uncontrollable dysen

teric evacuations intensify the general agony, until death, no longer terrible in the immediate prospect, is coveted rather as a comforting alternative.”

Fear

ful as is the picture , it is no overdrawn representa tion . A Chinese writer describes the sensation in the

stomach as an “ indefinable but inappeasable long ing ;" De Quincey likens the feeling in the organ to “ the gnawing of some imprisoned reptile ;” the

Hospital-patient, Mr. B., speaking from his own ex perience , pronounces the epigastrial constriction a something horrible beyond description ; Grose rep resents the sufferer under the oppression as half-dead

for the time. Mr. B . declares concerning himself, referring to a time when he had undertaken a break off, that " for ten days and nights together he lay without closing his eyes in sleep for once, so per sistentwere the torturings he had to endure."

6 . There was in New York one Dr. W ., a man who had spent all, (not “ in riotous living” like that other prodigal, but, worse than that, in the procuring of

opium for his daily use ),who was in the habit of calling at Naumann's. · About every day he pur chased a packet of morphine, 15 grains precisely for the time, or two or three, provided the money held out. “ Three such ( so he said ) would always set him right.” One time, just after leaving the shop and

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Opium .

ere a “ fit of the trembles" had entirely passed off, he fell upon the curbstone,but a second powder straight way put him on his legs again . No longer able to provide for himself, he was receiving from a friend a

fixed gratuity to go for board and clothing ; but so

overpowering was his appetite that he stinted himself in his fare to bestow the more money on his stimulus.

His course and end were what could be easily fore seen ; physical wear, penury, and the dejection of spirit incident to his other depressions drove the

suffering man at length to his last earthly home, the Island rendezvous. 7. Of the cases properly ranging with what might be denominated the order of the invincibles is a nar

rative of one now to come. Mrs. C .,æt. 25,mother that had been and grass-widow that was, consulted Dr. L . in reference to some form of sexual malady , yclept for convenience hysterial neuralgia. Some weeks having passed on with various treatment but

without visible improvement, the patient after a close questioning one day at length confessed to her habit,

declaring at the time that for her to think of re nouncing her stimulus was simply preposterous. To show how much she used for the time, she drew out from a small cabinet a vial labelled “ sulphate ofmor

phine;" and from this she poured upon the palm of her hand what would weigh apparently about 10 grains. The vial it was now agreed should be com mitted to the custody of the mother, and be used

thereafter only at her discretion. A few days having elapsed, another visit was made.

The doctor on en

Is the Opium - Appetite Qualifiedly Vincible ? 191

tering the chamber found the patient sitting up in bed , arms akimbo and hands nervously grasping the hypochondria, and delivering herself at short inter vals and in shrill buthalf-suppressed utterances, after this style of ejaculation : " Oh, dear ! Oh, dear ! mother, mother, give me the morphine !” A casket

was brought in, from which having drawn a small bottle she proceeded to saturate her handkerchief

with the contents. That liquid was chloroform . With such materials the patient had for a good while been practising upon herself, and with the knowledge and

connivance of a homeopathist. In this case con

stipation had become an established symptom , the entire organic machinery had got racked out of joint,

there was a wasting of the body, and, as the coun tenance too plainly betokened, “ leanness had entered

into her soul.” “ May a man drive away a hungry lion in the wood, or quench the fire in the stubble

when it hath begun to burn ?”

8. A case in conclusion of the chapter will show within how narrow limits the tiger may be chained without being restrained of his liberty altogether. A . F . H ., of Ontario county, distiller, born in 1820, is now just 50 years of age. A robust constitution, not seriously impaired until late in life (notwithstand ing a salivation undergone in his twelfth year for a

malarious fever), was an original inheritance. His ordinary weight at the time of his majority was 195 pounds, and his physical vigor was equal to any body's. Compelled by the nature of his business to be exposed much , not to cold alone but to damps

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Opium.

also (for sometimes he had to stand in water up to his knees an hour or more ), he experienced occa sional chills, and later a rheumatic inflammation

which determined on the first invasion to the hips and knees. This was in 1848 ; from which date simi

lar attacks proceeding from similar causes recurred twice a year at first, but later in periods gradually lengthening and also more frequently recurring.

9. Towards the close of the year 1858, so bent

had the limbs become and so stiffened the joints, and to such a degree of intensity had the general suffering advanced , that the victim , who had striven so long

and so stoutly to clear himself of the meshy web of symptoms in which he was to be so long and so in extricably entangled , now sensible his waning strength was no longer adequate to the struggle, betook him self to his bed, and kept it too out of sheer necessity

for eighteen tedious months, never leaving it all this time only for the briefest periods and when lifted from it by the strong arms of friends at hand. The doctor, aware he was about to have an untoward case upon his hands, appears nevertheless to have “ taken the responsibility ,” with the vigor of a Jackson if not with the temerity of one. Tonics and nervines, as

cinchona, colchicum , the nux, and other articles of approved reputation, appear to have been put to vigorous service, but not with encouraging results.

Among the various resorts was opium , which was used for its sedative efficacy from the beginning, but without material advantage anyhow . 10 . Three months had passed, and the patient was

Is the Opium -Appetite Qualifiedly Vincible ? 193

now beginning to entertain apprehensions of daniage accruing from the continuous use of an agent so potent as opium ; but somehow he got reassured

again , convinced that the same could be dropped at

any time and withoutembarrassment, in case any pal pable detriment should come of it. First used was the concrete gum , in pills of the musket- shot size, three

for the day. Subsequently and for experimental trial morphine was substituted, but without manifest advantage, and so a return was made to the original form . There was found to attach to the morphine one advantage, and also a disadvantage. The disturb

ance of the stomach was less considerable than as

before, but there was to offset this a strange sensa tion as of sinking by a sudden precipitation into a

chasm below , a hundred or two hundred feet down. This feeling occurred only concurrently with a doze,

and very irregularly at that. It appears to have had something in common with the peculiar thrill of the

epileptic aura .

11. Another three months having matured but without any appreciable benefit derived from the opiates, a gradationary reduction anticipative of ulti

mate abandonment was proposed and undertaken . At this stage an ounce would last perhaps ten days only, or again it would cover two weeks.

The first

experiment was with pills graduated by precise dif ferences (the largest for the beginning ), so that one

ounce should extend through forty days. The suf ferer having become very weak and proportionably irritable by the time he had gone half-way, suddenly 17

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Opium.

put ship about, and from this day forward he appears to have followed his own bent very much. By the

ninth month from the first the doctor also ,whether from distrust of his patient or from discouragement

in the course, (one or both considerations operating), ceased to render further attendance. 12. There was by this time established a complica

tion of symptoms truly disheartening. Constipation beginning very early had long been a fixed condition scarcely alleviable by purgatives or other means, emaciation had proceeded to such an extreme that the skin seemed to hang loose about the limbs very

much like the husk over a withered ear of corn , the entire frame was agitated with tossings to and fro, and not unfrequently was felt an alternating sense of heavy oppression, as it were a death - torpor creeping over and pervading the entire bodily frame, and the

whole aspect betokened a prostration insurmountable and desperate. The appetite, which a full dose would often sharpen up , gave place in the intervals to ano

rexia, with nausea or vomiting or both succeeding and perhaps the oftener in the early morning. Sleep , irregular in the main , was exempt however from the

commonly additional companionship of dreams and visions. After the evening-pill (there were usually three, for scarcely once, if that, amidst all these vicis situdes and trials was there an intermission of dose

beyond eighthours), the patient would lie in a placid dreamy (not dreaming) repose , giving free scope to

his fantastic reveries but “ taking no thought for the morrow ” meanwhile. The most refreshing sleep fol

Is the Opium - Appetite Qualifiedly Vincible ? 195 lowed upon the morning -pill. During the waking hours when under the full excitement he would feel

" happy as a full-blown sunflower;" in the opposite state with the “ horrors” upon him , “ the sensations

were what no imagination can conceive, much more

what no pen could describe.” 13. The first trial at reform , abortive as it . had turned out, did not however discourage future at

tempts undertaken of his own impulses. One time he made up a batch of pills graduated strictly by the scales ; after this he hit upon the following device : Sixty pills made out of an ounce of the gum having been transferred to a bottle, there were added as a menstruum just so many tablespoonfuls of whiskey . As often as a tablespoonful-draught was poured off, so often was the vacuity replaced by additional meas

ures of the pure whiskey. The trial was proceeded

in until the medicinal strength of the liquor had got reduced by about fifty per-cent.; but here the familiar nervous tremors reviving intercepted the well-inten tioned undertaking, and our friend relapsed, to fight

again upon the old line, but “ not to fight it out upon

the old line.” 14 . Having now become excessively restive under repeated drawbacks and thoroughly intolerant of

protracted confinement, Mr. H . was ready and on the

watch for any “ favoring gale ” of hope under his complicated infirmities. Engrossed with the “ loud talk and the tall professions” of one Mann down in Gotham (a sort of “ seventh son of a seventh son ” ), weak as he was, and with a spine doubled upon itself

Opium .

196

almost, he journeyed away to New York, elate with

joyous expectation in the beginning, but beguiled into a “ delusion and a snare” in the end by the like of such fellows as “ Keep the word of promise to the ear, But break it to the hope."

15. Seven years had this man been a slave to opium ; and for six of these years so intense had been the rackings in the joints, he was able to rise

out of his chair (for he keeps the sitting posture mostly ) no otherwise than as lifted by other hands

applied to the armpits . In the course of these years

he had at different times called to his aid from near and far physicians not a few , whose respective ad visory views when put together for comparison wore a very particolored complexion . Doctors are prone

to disagree , even where they do not agree to disagree. Getting sight accidentally of a circular commending McMunn 's Elixir, he resolved to make a last effort

at reform by a reduction upon that.

The sensations

experienced upon the change were a wonder to him

self. The tremors subsided,the intestinal constriction relaxed, digestion and appetite improved , and com forting sleep was had withal, and the frame began to recover something of its original rotundity ; and now , after a five-years' trial, he is as well satisfied with the elixir as he was at the first. An ounce -vial lasts for

four days to a week, but the desire (never regular now ) abates in summer or whenever the mind is pre occupied with extraneous affairs. His general aspect

Is the Opium - Appetite Qualifiedly Vincible ? 197 is decidedly good, and but for the spinal incurvation he could work by the ten -hour rule aswell as he ever did. Alcohol, though tried, never served him any

way as a substitute for the opium . Feeling that by a strong exercise of will he could break with his stimulus any day, he yet holds to the melius-cras idea, the same as thus expressed by Talleyrand, that ' it is better to put off to to-morrow what need not be done to-day.”

17*

CHAPTER XVIII. VOLUNTARY REFORMS AND

INVOLUNTARY FAILURES .

“ Ulcus enim vivescit et inveterascit alendo.” — LUCRETIUS.

“ Why smote ye not the tiger when he reeled ? Oh fair occasion , gone forever by !" - CAMPBELL.

I. The proposition, “ Sublata causâ tollitur effectus," may pass very well for an apophthegmatic text if not insisted on peremptorily as a foregone conclu sion. Even upon the supposition that a final con

quest of the obnoxious habit has been completed, it were preposterous to calculate upon a thorough re dintegration of the constitution to the “ status quo ante bellum ,” a rehabilitation of health in its pristine

integrity. Much however may be expected from the presence of two agents in their steady though silent co-operation , the “ Emplastrum patientiæ — Patience, sorrow 's salve,” and what Cicero adverts to as the “ Medicina temporis, or tincture of time." * Perse verant endeavor is an element in the cure not to be lightly regarded , least of all to be ignored. “ Whatwound did ever heal but by degrees ?” + * The great orator, in view of the tempestuous period in which he lived, put too much faith perhaps in the mere curative power of time _ “ Tarda illa quidem medicina sed tamen magna, quam affert longinquitas et dies.” † “ Tempore ducetur longo male firma cicatrix ;

Interdum docta plus valet arte malum .” - Ovid. ( 198 )

Voluntary Reforms and Involuntary Failures.

199

2. Physicians cognizant of individual histories will tell you, that they have never met for the first time an opium -eater who has not been able to show some pivot-point in his course, upon which he has under taken to make a reformation to turn. Legion is the

word to represent the failures ; the permanent suc cesses might be reckoned up almost on the fingers' ends. The well-intentioned resolve is ever liable

to be frustrated by the “ longing lingering look behind." * Long desuetude affords no presump tion against a revival of appetite, present impedi ments to the procuring of supplies constitute no

permanent barriers against insidious invasion - no more does experience impress any permanent les

sons, inasmuch as the memory of the early conflict is prone to fade with lapsing years. The veteran

warrior, unheedful of his scars , those sole-surviving trophies perhaps of his fifty fights, resumes the pan oply of warfare once more, as his ear catches afresh

the familiar bugle-note. * 3. De Quincey at one stage of his experience in

termitted his laudanum -drops for the long term of twenty - eight years (so the record runs), and for all, in a memorandum that bears date 1845, he con fesses to a third relapse, as if foreshadowing his dis

mal future in the brief but monitory exclamation, “ All is lost !” For Coleridge, his professed attempts at change (unless ostentatious lamentations be accepted * “ Difficile est longam deponere amorem .” — OVID.

“ Immemor antiqui vulneris arma capit.” — IBID.

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· Opium .

as counter-evidences) were but spasmodic fluctuations

between an overwrought resolution for the hour and a pusillanimous surrendry of the will-power in the alternative. In him determinate purpose seems to

have expended itself all at once in one lurid flash, when in the agony of his desperation he exclaims, “ Hope ! now there is none — I am but the wreck of what you once knew me, rolling rudderless !" .

4. Only less deep and oppressive was the gloom in which the waning years of Randolph were shrouded. “ I live by opium if not upon it,” was his voluntary

though apparently reluctant confession,made in the hearing of a friend as early as 1831. On a later oc casion when life's brief candle was about to flicker its

last, as if confessing to his infirmity while bowed down under its oppressive overshadowing ,he thus un burthens his weary soul : “ I am fast sinking now ;but,

please God, I will shake off this incubus before I die !" - Painful lament, futile resolve. The meliora was on

his lips, the deteriora swayed his will.* 5 . To begin our enumeration , with Tiedemann for authority, we present the late emperor of China,

Taou -Kwang, or “ Reason 's Glory" as interpreted.

This prince, admonished in his declining years of health impaired from a long devotion to the opium pipe, made a resolution with himself as sudden as it

was earnest, that he would discard forever this do mestic enemy, the disturber of his comfort and de * “ Laudo meliora proboque; Deteriora sequor." - Ovid .

Voluntary Reformsand Involuntary Failures. 201 stroyer of his health ; and he persevered in his good resolution even unto the end. That an autocrat, hailed as “ Brother of the sun and moon,” and wor shipped as a demi-god with the incense-offerings of homage daily ascending from four hundred millions

ofabject adulators and vassal slaves — that a potentate so exalted , so mighty , so renowned, could for once bebrought to see things around him reduced to their

proper proportions and the lineaments of mortality traced upon his own face, was indeed “ a new thing under the sun .”

6 . Dr. Christison presents the case of a woman who had led a loose life, and who had long been a martyr to rheumatism , as also to opium secondarily . She

broke off of her own motion suddenly , and without any revived disposition towards thehabit. AtMount

Hope Lunatic Asylum there was a female patient under Dr. Stokes's charge, an inmate for three

months only , whose daily quantity had expanded in that time to 156 grains, or over 274 ounces a week. She too, from no remonstrance or outside dictation

but of her own prompting simply, abandoned the stimulus outright, and without personal detriment

or any recurrence of the desire. 7 . An extraordinary case, that of a Wisconsin man ,

is recorded in detail by Dr. Barnes. This patient, 50 years of age, an invalid with nervous ailments who had “ suffered many things of physicians,” had been

served while under treatment by one of them with

certain “ drops” (a solution of morphine, as appeared afterwards), upon which he had been feeding for

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about six months. Sensible of no abiding improve ment he was desirous of breaking off, but in the undertaking he found himself, to his surprise, fast

bound. For two years an exhilaration followed reg ularly upon each dose, and there seemed imparted a feeling of factitious strength , but by-and-by as quan tity was augmented the tendency seemed to be on

the reverse line rather. 8. By the expiration of six years the sufferer felt

himself to have become a used -up man, longing for death as a deliverer rather than awaiting his invasion

with apprehension . Hope nevertheless, “ that rain bow to the storms of life,” was not yet altogether

extinguished. Having made repeated trials upon the graduation -method , to be foiled as often, he re solved on one more chance-effort at renunciation

which should be immediate and final. The first forty -eight hours passed mainly in sleep ; the third morning found him wide awake ; and from that hour onward there was no more sleep for him through forty and eight days and nights. The second day was the one of most intense suffering, for on this there began an intestinal drain , a “ river of corruption ,” flowing from an Augean stable as it were, three weeks with

out abatement. All this while the brain was reeling under a racking pain , which pervaded indeed every single organ and fibre to concentrate upon the stom

ach in chief. These sensations,worse in the appre hension than the death -agony itself, prevailed in their full intensity, never relaxing, for full five weeks.

Times over there rose to the mind on his solitary

Voluntary Reforms and Involuntary Failures.

203

rambles the temptation to what seemed a cheap alternative, suicide.

9 . Eventually a " water-cure” was visited, and here were assiduously and perseveringly employed , and for ten days through, the vapor-bath , the sitz, and the shampooing process , in various combination but

without visible impression upon the symptoms. One morning (the 65th day of the entire experiment it was) the patient on making his appearance in the bath -room was accosted by Cudjoe, the lad of all work , in these terms: “ Massa, you looks drefful dis

mornin ’; you wants a dush.” Verily so ; the douche (and a long-continued one it was) was applied,with a shampooing following as long; whereupon ensued

a placid sleep that lasted four hours. “ Never did one wake out of his slumbers a happier man than I

myself was at this moment ; for now , as I plainly saw , I was delivered from the prison -house of death ." By eleven months his weight had mounted from the

low figure of 120 to 190 pounds. The quantity con sumed for the day — an amount which had not been

varied from for the last four years — was 4 grains precisely ; a dose strangely disproportionate to actual effect. After the lapse of seven months now (1868) the patient is steadily persevering , rejoicing on his way ,

delivered from all solicitude other than what arises from a measurable “ vacillation of the will-power” that is prone to recur now and then in spite of him . 10 . Partial successes upon efforts redolent of fair promise in the outset are nothing uncommon . Illus trative of the oft-verified saying that “ a man 's foes

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are they of his own household ,” is a case by Whal ley as reported in the Lancet, 1865. A woman 44

years old , mother of eight children, having been subject to intestinal cramps a good while ,began the

use of laudanun (as advised by her doctor), at the very moderate rate of 20 drops. Urged from a sense of present relief to go on , she did go on indeed and into the fourteenth year, by which time the original

measure had swelled to what would make a gallon a month . Sorely jaded as the stomach must have been in entertaining thus much of any one stimulus, whiskey had besides been called in for reinforcement. So long as the proper influence of the opiate lasted the patient was hilarious in her manner and equal to

her domestic task -work , but droopy and mopish , with an inward distress altogether unbearable, so surely as any irregularity of supply occurred. En couraged by this time to undertake a readily assented, and set about the work proportionate to the odds against her. the nervous depression under the intense

reform she with a zeal Great was hypochon

driac constriction, yet there was no faltering in pur pose, and through three months the trial progressed with favorable prospects, when family -friends inter

fered , insisting that she was unequal to a longer trial, and that shemust resume her opium or go without it and die. “ Mark my words” and “ I told you so," are arguments among the most potential in the domestic armamentarium .

11. Notmuch dissimilar to the preceding detail is a case as communicated by Dr. S ., that of NIrs. R ., of

Voluntary Reforms and Involuntary Failures. 205

a N . E . town. The lady, now 61 years of age, made her début twenty -three years ago, following prescrip

tions as usual; but perceiving herself after a few months' experience to be visibly verging towards the bourn from which there is no returning, she made a deliberate resolve to halt in her course , at the risk of whatever suffering might ensue. With the succor

of nervines in part as furnished by the physician she went on very encouragingly through five years ; but

the trial was an arduous one, and the prostration pursuant upon it had become so extreme that hus

band and doctor both grew apprehensive of fatal consequences, and it was deemed prudent to restore the stimulus in part, yet in some clandestine way .

“ Bracing-up pills” (as they were called , which owed their virtue mainly to half a grain of the gum in

combination ) were now regularly administered, and a visible improvement was perceived. After some months the medicine, first reduced by degrees, was finally discontinued ; but some time later the ruse that had been practised having come to the patient's

knowledge, she reckoned she might experiment by herself. Accordingly she resumed her opium , but in so extreme moderation , that as is believed , she has kept steadily during the long period that has inter vened to the modicum of 172 grains with one repe tition , for the day .

The amount of systemic wear

has been very inconsiderable. 12. A more significant out-and -out failure is that of a Michigan lady, NIrs. S., wife of a physician , as detailed in a communication for advice addressed to 13

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Opium .

Dr. Lee in 1867. The patient, æt. 53 now , began

the use of morphine somewhere about 1855, the occasion being one of the very common ones, a uterine irregularity.

The average for the entire

period, (for the husband appears to have been for

several of these years but imperfectly cognizant of the progress going on ), was something like a drachm

divided up for three days. Attempts to cut down the doses she has made, as advised, and failed upon again and again . The appetite for food has declined materially , the night-hours pass less in sleep than in

coursing up and down the room , and spinal pains and the peculiar epigastric constriction and præcor

dial uneasiness (“ paroxysms of distress," she calls

them ) superadded, have together made of life a burthen . The excitementproper begins in the night with a feeling of “ goneness” as it were, and now the surface gets cold and must be fortified by heated bottles and a spirituous drink besides to rally upon ,

or she falls into the inertia of exhaustion. A trial made lately with a ten - grain pill has given nothing beyond indifferent encouragement, for though there has been no aggravation of paroxysm following ,

neither has any improvement in other symptoms appeared.

The mind too has felt the reaction , in

the confusion of ideas and a measurable declension from the wonted balance and tone. Melancholy apprehensions seem to have preoccupied the place

of all healthful thought, there is an abiding fear of impending death , and sleep is anticipated with alarm and deprecated as a wo-betiding evil rather.

Voluntary Reforms and Involuntary Failures.

207

13. In regard to the prospect of a voluntary and enduring reformation , suppose the patient has be

come habituated to opium and alcoholics both , expec tation, in the view of Dr. Pitcher, hangs by a very

slender thread. He had known of not one soli tary exceptional case to a considerable list of such unfortunates, and of only one indeed where the stim ulation was upon opium alone, viz . that of a lady,

who in connection with her last parturition had got upon the use ofmorphine, and who was cured several

years since under asylum -treatment, and to appear ance without any prospect of a relapse. Her amount was 20 grains. The husband (not herself ) had been an inebriate upon whiskey , and a son of theirs yet under 25 years had undergone delirium tremens sev

eral times. Concurrent with the views of Dr. P . are the expressed opinions of other observers ; and the

following case obligingly communicated by Pliny Earle, M .D ., of the Northampton Lunatic Asylum ,

appears to bring confirmatory evidence. 14 . Mrs. M .,æt. 23,by condition a laboring woman, intelligent in her sphere and industrious in habits ,

was admitted to the asylum towards the end of the year 1859. Opium , prescribed three years ago on

the occasion of a lying-in ,was continued by her and has been used ever since.

This she must have or

would have through some contrivance or other, being habitually under the stimulation . Noted for her gen

eral capacity she showed no indication of insanity in

any degree, though there was present the morbid appetite and the stupor also , neither of which is ac

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.counted any proper indication of mental aberration. The ensuing April she appears on the record as “ re covered,” and in the samemonth again she is noted as discharged . Second admission , Jan . 1865, dis

charge in September.

Third admission in March,

1868, discharge in June. The fourth admission , Aug. 27, 1868, preceded her death by two days only .

Of all forms she preferred the concrete gum .

No

impregnation had taken place after the first reception. The more noticeable morbid influence upon the mind was an utter disregard for truth , and especially in all

things pertaining to her habit. For all her profes sions, the probability is she never once made a con scientious attempt to break away from her enslave

ment. Upon the third discharge she was employed in the doctor's kitchen, with the understanding she

was at no time to leave the premises but by express permission. Having continued a few weeks, she gave very plausible reasons for visiting her mother, and

had leave of absence for two days on the promise of returning. Ten days after she is heard of again at one of thehotels where she had taken lodgings,being now very ill with dysentery, the immediate cause of

her death . There is sufficient evidence for believing that during her last interval of absence she had been using opium not only but alcoholic drink besides.

Such is the proneness in these cases to extremes ; it is all or nothing — " nil medium est.”

15. As a suitable appendix to the present chapter

may be instanced a sort of Janus-faced case, one that looks one way and squints another way. The con

Voluntary Reformsand Involuntary Failures. 209

tribution is from Dr. Quackenbos, and the patient in all her habits and scheminess was thoroughly known to him . One Dame Nicholas (so styled ) with Congo face and hue most decidedly pronounced, of

agreeable temper and amiable address underneath a

conspicuous ugliness of feature — une fille de chambre by proclivity of association but of general adaptiveness to work and occupation of any sort — a case “ known to all the doctors” withal, had been habituated to the use ofopium for five years certainly , and probably for twice

as long. She was in the habit of presenting herself regularly at the N . Y . Dispensary (Dr. Q. then being in attendance) upon one pretext or another about every day, sometimes ailing, or again for the purpose of doing the out-work about the establishment. Her single and supremewant was opium , the pure gum

for she could never be persuaded to change to lau

danum nor would she use spirits in any form - and for it she would work like a slave, submitting to any thing, ready to do anything. She used one drachm a day (never satisfied with less), and as much extra as her ingenuity could secure. She was in nowise

particular in the measure, taking by nibbles from a lump, as might be convenient. No marked symp

tomswere observable, as of constipation or emacia tion or nervousness, only a tendency to stupor late in the day perhaps. Her habitually squalid appear

ance was a sufficient evidence of the overwhelming force of her habit, but so coaxing was her manner,

so ingratiative her presence, so perfect her attain - . 18 *

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Opium .

ments in the wheedling art, she rarely went away empty-handed. 16 . A year or more after Q.'s retirement from ser vice at the Institution ,meeting his old patient on the street one day he was surprised at not being impor tuned for opium , as had always been his previous experience with the woman . She informed him that soon after having called on him the last time pre viously she had made acquaintance at a Methodist meeting, where she had “ taken religion ” (as her ac count was), and where she had been persuaded by a class-leader to break up her habit. She had done so

(as she averred ),and without damage to herself, feeling as well after as she used to do under the influence.

Nothing in her countenance betokened the usual symptoms, nor did her appearance belie her words, other than the slatternly look long habitual to her,

and which was by no means a contraindication. In the present instance the circumstantial evidence , pre

cise as it is, gives good boding of a reform that will last. In the general however it is difficult to foresee and pronounce upon the end in such cases without hesitancy and much qualification . “ They have their exits as their entrances,"

but not of course according to and in the order of time.

CHAPTER XIX . SPECIFIC

THERAPEIA .

“ In adimendis periculis , consuetudo imitanda illorum medicorum est, qui leviter ægrotantes leniter curant, gravioribus autem morbis periculosas curationes et ancipites adhibere coguntur. ” — CICERO .

" Physicians, to cure fevers, keep from the patient's lips the cup

that would inflame them .” — THE FOUNDLING.

1. The specific Rationes medendi or methods of treatment are in the main two : the Perturbativemode as it may be appropriately designated ,which consists in withholding the narcotic peremptorily and abso

lutely ; and the Gradative or Reductionary plan , that which proceeds by regular fractional diminutions. A third and subordinate division is the method by

Compensation or Substitution . These cardinal modes are subject in their individual adaptation to consider able modifications.

2. The Perturbative Method. Though intemperate persons of whatever description, as Dr. Day remarks, view the sudden withdrawal of their accustomed stimulus with apprehension for consequences, never theless a partial suspension is found in the actual trial less endurable than deprivation in the totality . Just as the pendulum oscillates backwards and for wards along its arc times over before it settles quietly

( 211)

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at the intermediate point, so in familiar experience it is commonly found easier to swing from one extreme

to the opposite rather than to halt halfway. The hungry man , food out of sight, may prolong his fast for days together; a single morsel alone got hold of

serves not as refreshment but only as a tantalizer. 3. To this plan appertains one peculiar advantage, that so long as nothing remains there is nothing for

abnormal desire to whet itself upon . The observa tion in regard to all narcotic stimuli is in one respect uniform and invariable , namely this, that the dormant

appetite is rekindled as readily and as fiercely no more by a full dose than by an inconsiderable frac tion of one. “ Ex una scintilla incendia” — a spark may initiate the conflagration . 4 . To Dr. Macgowan, Missionary on the Ningpo station twenty years since, appears to attach the credit of priority in the inauguration of this practice.

In a letter to the writer he thus speaks : “ Instead of

pursuing the course favored here in China by other foreigners my collaborators, (the plan of gradual re duction concurrently with the substitution of other toxics in their place), the course followed out atmy hospital has been to cut off the opium entirely and at once, with this single modification in instances of allowing a little of the comp. ipecac powder to meet the colliquative diarrhea so often ensuing. So se

vere was this ordeal to such as undertook it that only themore resolute of the patients would submit and persevere, but such were sure of coming out of their emaciation and debility , rejuvenated and reno

Specific Therapeia .

213

vated as if fresh from a dip in the cauldron of some Medea.”

5 . A writer in the British Medical Journal of 1867 expresses his views, based upon a considerably varied

observation both at home and in the Far East, in the following language : " Absolute and immediate sus pension is for efficacy the far more reliable plan , being less tedious, less exhausting, less the occasion of hard suffering.” Agreeably to his proposition the customary quantity should be cut down at once by

one-third , to be followed by rapid reductions on the remaining two-thirds.

6 . The successes achieved upon this the heroic method at the institutions (the course held in espe cial favor there) have been very satisfactory (vide chap. xxi). A case in illustration requiring bold ac tion came under the management of Prof. A . Flint,

M . D ., at Bellevue Hospital. 7 . Aud, aged 56 , Scotch by birth and a photogra

pher by profession ,“ brought up” at Bellevue a second

time towards the end of the year 1866. Previously entered as a patient he one day took French leave, but reapplied and was readmitted after an interim of

two and a half years. The first year after leaving his daily amount was half an ounce of laudanum , which in the last six months had got to 3 ounces. Besides this, he was daily consuming (according to his own story ) a pint ofwhiskey. Appetite was usually right

with him and digestion regular so long as the force of the stimulus lasted ; but whenever he undertook a

change (as he had done more than once) the irregu

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Opium .

larities were so great and the prostration so extreme,

his friends would insist the thing was impossible and beg him to forbear further effort. 8. On the day of entry he had taken his whiskey, but of laudanum a little only . There was general irritability with extreme nervous excitation, an epi gastric uneasiness indescribably severe, and an over

powering physical prostration, a glassy lustre of the eye with impaired vision , a dryness of skin , and tongue red and loaded with sordes, and a wavering of the memory besides with impaired mental function generally , while the entire frame was agitated by in cessant tremors . There occurred too in the course

of the first week , what is ever a very depressing symp tom , an abnormal excitement of the seminal vesicles. Personal restraint was imposed and all opium was

withheld from the first, with the single exception that through somemisdirection an ounce of Magendie

had been allowed in one instance. Bromide of po

tassa in half-drachm doses every twenty -four hours , with gentian for an adjunct, rendered apparent service.

By the fifth day the patient was able to sleep fairly , and he could now take milk and brothswith a relish , but solid food was not tolerated by the stomach as yet. By a month so great was the transformation wrought he was scarcely recognizable to those who had seen him on his entry, and at his own request

he was put upon some office-work.

The desperate

craving so common in these cases was less urgent in his, and this , and with it the thirst for strong drink, appears to have about subsided. After a stay of five

Specific Therapeia .

215

weeks and a little more he was discharged, and two months later a letter of his came from Pottsville his place of sojourn , stating that he had materially re

cruited and had resumed his business once more. The habit had begun ten years before, having had its foundation in a chronic dysentery . 9 . The Reductionary course, less favored in the

asylums as being less active and prompt, has in private practice operated very successfully upon a

considerable number of untoward cases. To work feasibly the process must be a quale-ab-incepto pro

gress,proceeding by substitutions in regular gradation throughout.

The main objection urged against this

practice is the fact, that the patient is liable to tire of a course conducted thus slowly and protractedly. Among those particularly partial to this mode is

Dr. Bernir of the Haymarket,London,who expresses his approbation from a large observation made in China.

10. A Malwa merchant there was, using 20 grains of opium twice a day at the time, who came under

the charge of Dr. Little. This man , a person of nerve, who in obedience to the exactions of Moham

medan law could forego any luxuries whatever and hold himself to water and dry rice for three weeks together, was as helpless under the dominion of

opium as a child were in the clutch of a giant. A start with a diminution of eight grains upon each dose was made, but afterwards the reductions were

inconsiderable , the process being extended through several months. This gentleman, thoroughly re

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Opium .

formed at length , was known for more than a year

after to be still faithfully holding on his way. II. At St. Mary's Hospital, Dr. Chambers in at tendance, was a young man , an interne of the insti tution, who from going to a late hour in the day

without his dinner had got into the way of taking laudanum meantime as a stomach -quietive. Only a few months had now passed and yet the dose had grown to an ounce, and besides solid opium was being used in addition. Already dyspeptic symp

toms had appeared,with occasional tremors premoni tory of paralysis in some form . Regularity in meals

aided by light doses of cinchona brought about a restoration .

12. A case of somewhat equivocal issue is from

Loines. A woman of color used to call every day for her two ounces of laudanum , always provided the purse would warrant. So tremulous on arriving she could scarcely keep from falling, she would no

sooner have her draught down than she was all straight again . Mr. B ., the druggist, compassion

ating her case proposed a tapering off, and she readily agreed. A reduction by twenty drops made every day was followed by success, and the woman

faithfully abstained for a year thereafter. She then

it appears,worried down by things untoward, gave herself up to liquor and afterwards died of delirium tremens ; but, what was remarkable, she had no re

turning taste for the opium . 13. An instance worthy of note is contributed by

the late N . S . Perkins, M .D ., our ancient preceptor.

Specific Therapeia .

217

Forty years ago there was resident in Litchfield a

physician of repute that was in his day, Dr. Sheldon. This man , with a pleuritis upon him which had gone cia to the stage of empyema, had used opium mean

while, though in minute doses only. The appetite,

fastened upon him ere he was aware, held him fix edly for a number of years, during which he carried things with a high hand, taking his opium by scru

ples without scruple. Having made up his mind to a reform he committed the opium to his wife, in structing her how to make the proper reductions.

The course occupied several months,but at length all

abnormal desire passed away, and the doctor lived long enough after to see his seventieth year. 14. A child -case, very remarkable certainly in view of age, quantity, and termination taken together, is

furnished for publication here by C . H . Wood, M . D .,

of Ontario . The course of proceeding was watched from the beginning, and the incidents in progress carefully noted. An infant (a nullius filius) came into

the world with a constitutional taint, which at two

months was developed in the eyes and throat, and on the scalp and elsewhere.

The mother, impatient

at having a sickly brat on her hands, procured some of that precious calmative, the Winslow syrup — with the pious intention of helping on a transition from this present vexatious state to another less troublous.

Ten to fifteen drops of the syrup, given once a day and in the morning , were continued for a fortnight,

but no advantage having accrued paregoric was put in its place, — ten drops for a beginning, increased to 19

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Opium .

a teaspoonful by three weeks. The paregoric too was a failure, and now came in laudanum to take its chance. Five drops at first, repeated several times

through the day and night,were given , the amounts increasing to the fifth month (the seventh by age),by which time the dose had got to be 100 drops, all . given at once, with an extra from the vial to make the count sure. Even this extravagant quantity (and the laudanum was a pure article) failed to keep the

child quiet, whereupon the woman, altogether dis couraged from being thus foiled , resolved on discard ing all medicine of whatever name, this included. A reduction upon the laudanum was begun, and carried to completion in the next six months. Within two years thereafter the child was treated for the inherited

malady, and now it is hale and thriving, a monument of that preservative instinct attaching to maternity , which ever rises uppermost whensoever and where soever rage " those vultures of the mind, — the fury passions.”

15. In the American Journal of Medical Sciences may be found an instructive narrative by Dr. Myers

of Ohio . A physician, who for some cause had lapsed into a state of hypochondriacal depression, had sought the succors ofmorphine, having in six years gone up to 6 grains — a moderate dose though not to him . A monomaniac decidedly by this time, he was haunted day in and out with an ever-abiding apprehension of impending death. A quart- flask was filled with a

solution corresponding in strength (six grains to the

drachm ) to what the patient had been using, and the

Specific Therapeia .

219

direction given was that so often as a teaspoonful

was drawn off for use the vacuity should be supplied by so much water. Reductions thus arranged pro ceed by variations in a regularly descending series. The process in this case was continued through twenty -two weeks, by which time all peculiar taste in the liquid was gone, and the invalid had become restored to health and sanity again. 16 . A case not unlike is to be found in the Lancet

of 1851. A young lady had been using morphine for six months, but had not yet gone beyond 2 grains. The menstruum provided for her was an aromatized spirit, and the reductions were made by a member

of the family in collusion with the physician . Two months sufficed for effecting the desired result, and now the patient, much to her surprise as well as de

light, was informed of the stratagem . 17. Devices for deception must be planned with

much adroitness. Smith of N . L . had a purchaser,

a youth of seventeen years, who was taking McMunn as a palliator of pain from coxalgia. A proposed change was carried to a successful issue in this way. A solution of morphine definite in strength with anise-water for a flavorant having been prepared , the

father was instructed how to make the reductions and replacements so that the transition should go on

imperceptible to the patient. The final draught was given towards the end of the fourth month of trial.

The young man has improved in health sensibly, and has continued steadfast now over two years . In

case a reduction were to be made upon pills, Oppen

220

Opium .

heim has suggested wax for the supplementary com .. bination .

18. A lady of B . (Jones), who had been using McMunn for two years and to the extent of one

fourth of an ounce, to second the wishes of an anx

ious husband undertook the following course. A solution was prepared of the usual strength , so that

a wine- glass should be the measure .

Following

every draught a leaden shot of the bird -size was to be dropped into the glass until this should be full. Two months were occupied and a cure was effected.

The reductions in this instance were made, it is to be noted, upon quantity , and not by dilution .* 19. The Substitutional forin ,as supplementive of and auxiliary to the others , has had a free advocacy.

Thus Prof. C . A . Lee : “ My uniform practice has been to insist upon the breaking off at once, and to

supply the vacuum created with agents the least of all harmful, such as beef-broths, coffee and green tea,

and stock -ale too, as the Falkirk ; each and all of which have rendered good service.”

20. At the Edinburgh Dispensary, Dr. Christison in charge, was a young man who had been upon lau danum for a considerable timewith the purpose of combating a chronic dysentery. Tincture of hyos * Note. Dr. Pitcairn had once on his hands the chief of one of the Highland clans powerfully addicted to whiskey, who was yet very anxious to get out of his habit. The method followed was this , to drop into the queych (his liquor-vessel) every time a draught was taken a fragment of wax enough to take the impression of his official seal. Success was assured.

Specific Therapeia .

221

cyamus, and vegetable tonics in conjunction , were

successfully used as substitutes, and the result was the malady was overcome within three weeks, and with it went all desire for opium . Of chronic dysen

tery generally it may here be observed, that opium in whatever form , if uncombined, however alleviative

it may prove in the beginning almost certainly fails as a final curative. 21. In a narrative by Acosta concerning a company

of Turks, prisoners that were being transported from

India to Portugal, appears a memorandum of this sort. Their stock of opium (now prematurely exhausted) not being replaceable inasmuch as the ship was away from port, there was served out from the cabin-stores a supply of wine as an alternative. The effect (a double one) was as novel as unexpected. Not only did the new stimulus answer for the old , but by the

end of the voyage all appetite for opium had subsided. Dr. Pidduck relates in the L . Lancet of 1851 a suc

cess effected for the occasion by the substitution of a

bottle of claret at night in place of the laudanum -vial. The claret was repeated in the same way for a time,

until by-and-by the subject of the experiment made the agreeable discovery , he could dispense not only with the laudanum but with the claret besides. 22. The best-conducted courses towards reform

will often end in failure. No system pursued can guarantee more than a temporary reformation , - far less offer any certain security in any one case against

relapse. There was Mrs. H . of New York, a lady 44 years of age at this present and a mother, (with 19 *

222

Opium .

children, be it noted , grown to adult age and devoid

of evidences of deterioration through inheritance), who as a patient came at one period under the charge of Dr. Linsly, to be treated for a pain in the thoracic muscles - neuralgic rheumatism , as it had been chris

tened conformably to the nosologic phraseology of the day. An incidental symptom was a nervous in

somnia . Dr. L ., unable to make out a satisfactory diagnosis, conducted the case for two weeks about by a somewhat tentative method, groping in the dark and

feeling his way as it were, and the more discourag ingly on finding that Hoffmann 's anodyne (a powerful

sedative ) seemed in the present instance altogether inoperative. A new light, however, was suddenly thrown upon the case a few days from this, when

himself and the husband being in private consultation, the latter drew from under the lady's bed-pillow a vial bearing the label of a well-known Broadway

druggist, and the countersign — “ Ecce iterum Cris pinus!" — of Dr. F ., homeopathist. The proportions of the vial-contents (for the label indicated the ingre dients simply ) were ascertained upon inquiry made at the place of sale to be 30 grains of sul. morphine to i ounce of sugar of milk .

Two such vials lasted

for two-thirds of a week, or sometimes for an entire

week . The lady was not over-nice, however, often carrying the vial about in her pocket and pouring a dose at a guess upon the palm .

This was the noted

“ Pain -powder,” so denominated , and so often com mended to the female patients of their charge by certain gentlemen of the “ homeopathic persuasion.”

Specific Therapeia .

223

Not more surprised was the doctor on hearing the

revelation than thehusband himself had been before

on making the discovery of the habit. A peremptory change was made and insisted on for the future ; tonics as porter and milk -punch with strong diet were ordered, and a distinct promise (what is often

as free as is the asking *) was exacted, that the said powder should go into perpetual exile. All this availed nothing ; the practice went on as before, and L . abandoned the case , leaving it to relapse into the hands where it had been .

23. There was now a sort of interregnum , an inter val of miscellaneous experimenting, until the case came under the charge of Dr. Vanarsdale , and at a timewhen a fit of the horrors simulating a paroxysm

of delirium tremens was upon her. Dr. D .(who had been in attendance lately ) diagnosed the pathologic condition as a malacia or softening of the brain , (what was more likely an induration rather produced by

the excessive use of alcoholic drinks), pronouncing the condition a critical one, with certain death in the immediate prospect, - doctors, by the way, are not infallible prognosticators, — and thereupon retired . Dr. V. prescribed bromide of potassa in scruple -doses for every two hours. After the third the woman fell into a composing sleep , but awoke by -and -by in a crazed state nevertheless. All this occurred a year

back . The tremors and the agitations continued with * “ Quid enim promittere lædit ? Pollicitis dives quilibet esse potest." _ Ovid .

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Opium .

varying exacerbations and remissions for two months, when the patient seemed all at once to have come to

her proper self again .. The “ powders" had been stopped , and in lieu of them

and with advantage

iodide of potassa and arnica were being used. The

sleep too, which had been greatly disturbed by ugly visions such as occur in delirium tremens, was now easy and undisturbed.

The habit though not alto

gether cured is certainly very much moderated, for the aspect once haggard has greatly improved ; the doctor is but seldom needed, and (what is a signifi cant fact) the lady attends church with a good deal

of regularity. The quantity taken at times cannot have been less than half a drachm , and V . has him self seen the lady drink off half a pint of paregoric

(lager-beer measure) at a swig . Under the conduct of her present adviser she gave evidence at one time of having broken off from her stimulus for a period of five months, but after this interval she returned to

the former course (“ à ses premières amours,” etc.), but more sparingly . Once indeed, in evidence of good resolution , she broke her vial and scattered the contents ; but such acts argue nothing : as the old

Indian said — “ Promise be very good, but white man

he mighty onsartin ."

There is sufficient reason for

giving divided credit to whiskey as well, and in view of existing appearances it is safer to hope for better

things than to expect them . 24. The habit in her case became established in

this way — such is the account by Mrs. H . herself. Ten years ago about, Dr. F . began his attendance in

Specific Therapeia .

225

the family ,and in course he prescribed the “ pain -pow der,” representing it as a harmless medicine that

could be used with safety at any time and abandoned asunceremoniously . From this introduction the lady dates the beginning of all her sufferings. Hers is no solitary case ; for she knows of half a score of women who once used or are still using this same powder, in conformity to original prescription at the same

hands. “ Bind not one sin upon another,” is an in junction of the Son of Sirach .

25. The case here presented in the sequel as de livered personally to the narrator, provides out of itself an appreciable interpretation and an adequate

commentary . Mrs. L. T., of Western New York, a “ retired” lady now at the age of 48, of intelligent ex pression and prepossessing address, took opium for

the first time, being then enceinte, by prescription, and as is the usual course, became bound to it from

repeated use. The reaction had its first development in connection with the sleep . No sooner did her eyes close than grotesque figures, phantom shapes , forms of satanic ugliness would flit and dance across her chamber as she lay, or serpents with angry hiss

and menacing tongue advancing would wind in icy coils around her limbs or crawl across her shivery

body. In frenzied terror she would open her eyes, when upon the instant the strange visitors would van ish outright, to reappear so soon as the eyes should be shut again . 26 . Three years having worn along, the sufferer now well-nigh distracted in mind as she had become

226

Opium.

exhausted in body, resolved to concentrate her re

maining strength in one desperate effort to throw off the yoke and emancipate herself from her present

thraldoin . After persevering for a time, some new symptom having presented shemust fain have a doc tor's counsel again .

The new attendant, a homæo

pathist, provided a box of his globules, and a packet of “ powders ” as supernumeraries rather, which were to be taken for procuring sleep, the second to be used on failure of the first. These powders — morphine

that were, though not known to be such by the pa tient at the time — were continued for their soporific

influence , and so the habit became re-established.

What is noticeable here is the fact, that the spectral illusions engendered by the pure gum did not reap pear under the action of the alkaloid , neither was there the samereluctation on the part of the stomach . One time when the morphine had for the purpose of experiment been withheld forty - eight hours, the

patient fell all at once into violent spasms of the cata leptic form , and for seven days and nights following she did not drop into a doze even for once ; and so

intense had her sufferings now become and such were the apprehensions of the husband, it seemed

judicious to restore the morphine.

These spasms

occasionally recurring added much to the general de

bility and the eventual prostration. Once or twice under such , weak as she was and unused to liquor

altogether , she got to the brandy -bottle in her des peration, and drank off a gill for the time, enough to

Specific Therapeia.

227

have made her tipsy thrice over, yet without expe riencing any excitement, even the slightest. 27. In course the lady passed to the care of another

gentleman, Dr. C ., and with a view to a reform -trial. The doctor assumed the charge with zealous purpose, resolved , the patient co -operating, to combat expected discouragements. Theparoxysmsspoken of returned from time to time, but irregularly , and in one of these

when she had sunk into an apparent leipothymic state with eyes closed and fixed, hearing every word as spoken yet unable to move so much as an eyelid or

a finger , the doctor, now present as it happened, de clared she could not come out of this state, and that she must die. (Was this a ruse of the doctor's

against a supposed hysterial paroxysm ?) 28. Thirteen years of enslavement to opium had now passed away, but the dose had reached only the very moderate amount of 5 grains in two divisions.

A solution of morphine (a pint by measure) of the strength of five grains to the spoonful was made by Dr. C ., and after every draught simple water was to be supplied , so that the bottle should be kept full.

The reductions went on regularly for ninety days, by which time an attenuation so extreme was attained

that the fluid did not perceptibly differ in taste or otherwise from water proper.

The intermission that

followed was temporary only , some pretext having

been found for a resumption . The subject has be come utterly skeptical in reference to any supposed practicability of a reformation, accounting the doc tors all as “ blind watchmen , physicians of no value,”

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Opium .

and despairing of effectual disenthralment through any channel whatsoever. One drachm per week suffices for present use, a margin being allowed for

extras which it would be very safe to fill with a drachm more.

29. Present appearance and condition. The skin has a muddy sallowness, the eyes though habitually

expressionless occasionally brighten up with a lively glance, the appetite is dull and the digestive function is permanently impaired , and constipation, that be setting infirmity , goes unrelieved, except through in

strumental aid ; an extreme sensitiveness to cold alternates with hot flashes traversing the body, there

is an aphthous ulceration of the mouth and fauces coming and going, a shrunken appearance of muscle, and a general nervous sensitiveness and impressi bility. Diarrhea is not even an occasional symp tom . Sleep though not broken by dreams amounts

to nothing more than an irregular doziness. The mind evinces ng such marks of perversion or decay

as might be looked for, and attention to the person and parure is not wanting. There is an abiding in disposition to locomotion , and so the hours pass list lessly along , little varied unless by occasional read

ing. The habit has continued now sixteen years. “ O Mors, cur mihi sera venis p”

CHAPTER X X . GENERAL THERAPEUTICS, AND MORAL HYGEIENE.

“ Discite igitur potusmedicos curamque salubrem .” — PLINY. “ The skill of the physician shall lift up thine head : give place to

him ; lethim not go from thee, for thou hast need of him ." -- Esdras.

1. Under the twinges of an arthritic malady or the agitations from a febrile fire no prudent man would

long lie hesitating and debating upon the expediency of having the physician in council; how much more imperative and urgent is the exigency where body and mind both are alike involved and imperilled !

2. Upon the introductory discipline no less than upon the progressive conduct of the individual case, success if feasible must eventually turn. In the maturing of reformatory plans discouragements will

be encountered at the threshold — the mental dis quietude of the patient superadded to an impaired physique now feebly resistiveagainst evil,and the de spondency consequent upon abortive efforts already essayed. Medication furthermore, to operate effi ciently, must possess that plastic quality of adaptive

ness to mental idiosyncrasy equally as to physical temperament.

3. At the very outset the materies morbi, the “ old leaven,” must be purged out effectually and finally . The fortress must be taken by assault and the enemy 20

· ( 229 )

230

Opium .

be driven from his stronghold , or the campaign is a failure.

This is the “ una salus victis,” the essential

condition of permanent security preparative to a war

fare accomplished. Segregation of the patient under wholesome restraint away from the influences of un curbed temptation should be urged as a prerequisite.

The vague hope of procuring occasional though irregular supplies through connivance on the part of some ill-judging friend or through a too lenient laxity of restraint, (and none stronger can be exer cised under domestic influence alone), is sufficient of itself to keep awake an appetite, that through

severer discipline might in time decline into dor mancy. The lion though tamed must be confined to his cage, for with the very first snuff of blood those velvety paws may sprout all at once into barbs and tenter-hooks. 4. To revive the natural appetite for food and for the general recuperation the materia medica affords

various helpful resources.

Quinine, Iron , Vegetable

tonics and the Mineral acids, Nux vomica, the Bro

mides,Gelsemine, Lobelia,,all have been put to ser vice , and favorably. Pliny brings to notice a species of plant in these words : “ Bibitur Artemisia ex vino

adversus opium .” Iron , as in the form of ferruginous salts or chalybeate waters , which has had so positive success in controlling themorbid thirst for alcoholics,

is certainly to be commended as worthy of more careful trial in this association. A contributor to the British Medical Journal speaks of Phosphoric acid

with Lupuline in combination as being powerfully

General Therapeutics, and Moral Hygciene. 231 efficient towards assuaging the cravings. In the East the Betel has a reputation as an alexipharmic. Cap tain Wilkes of the Exploring Expedition , then on a

visit to the Sultan of Sooloo witnessed an experi

ment made upon a young prince of the court,who was successfully revived out of an opium -stupor, and mainly through the use of this plant.* 5. Certain familiar Beverages bear in this associa tion an accredited reputation , foremost among which

are coffee and wine. Coffee, almost unrivalled in celebrity and esteem among the common table -drinks, is accounted in Turkey a very efficaciousneutralizer of the narcotism from tobacco , and in Europe and the U . S . it holds a prominent place in the estimation of

the toxicologists as an antidote to opium .

There is

reported lately by Dr. Senneker the case of a child

poisoned by an over-dose of morphine which had advanced to the stage of coma, when caffeine (the alkaloid), two grains, injected hypodermically oper

ated to the patient's complete restoration. This

agent caffeine commends itself to the attention of physicians (although the high price precludes an in

• discriminate use), as what may upon careful trial be found to possess if not a countervailing force to the

full extent at least a partially counteractive influence. * Note. A Ohio preparation , recently announced under the desig nation of “ Svapnia-opium ,” has been lauded before the public as an advantageous substitute for the common forms, and more es pecially against the habitual vice. It may suffice to say here, that ascertained results do not support the asseverations put forth .

† Vide Hammond's Journal, vol. ii. no . 4 , art. 5 .

232

Орит.

In lieu of the costly alkaloid a strong infusion made from the berry slightly browned only , and taken , a

wine- glass for the time and several times repeated in the course of the day (and night perhaps), is com mended with a very assured confidence. An alterna tive mode of using the same is by introducing with an instrument per rectum — a practice favored by Rambosson .

6 . Wine has been adverted to in the preceding

chapter. The controlling power of wine is certified to by the very general testimony of the Turks, and

in particular by a gentleman of Aden , who assured Dr. Aliston that wine regularly used as a substitute

for opium will take away the taste in a month to a certainty . For occasions apple -wine or other pure

winemight help in propping up an attenuated frame, or in case of an extremely depressed innervation

rum -punch would be a good pro -tempore restorative. “ Anceps remedium potiusquam nullum .”

7. As food " strong meat” is required , and such is beef, venison , oysters, eggs, rich milk too if agree able, maize-bread ( paune as it is called along the Wabash ) for its laxative property as well, and there

should be a liberal use of condiments and fruit-sauces, the tomato before all. 8. To obviate so far as may be practicable that

sorely -besetting symptom constipation , the rectum syringe should ever have a place in the furniture of

the wardrobe. Functional derangement from the continued use there is none whatever ; the comfort ensuing upon the practice is to the experimenter

General Therapeutics, and Moral Hygeiene. 233 scarcely appreciable. Capt. L ., after employing such

instrument for more than ten years and regularly too, expressed one time his obligations to the writer for the suggestion to him so advantageous in the avoidance of many a drastic pill. The occasional di

arrhoea, which will recur, must be treated specially and for the occasion. 9 . A restorative of great co -operative power,appro priate besides to any and every condition of the

invalid from opium , is the warm -bath . The fluid may be indifferently heated water as in the simple warm

bath , steam -vapor as in the Russian bath , or an atmosphere of hot air as in the Turkish bath .

The

shower or the douche, if bearable, should regularly follow . The magnates of Rome in the days of im

perial luxury (like their imitators of to -day in Constan tinople and Ispahan ) well appreciated in their practice the salubrious influence of the daily ablution. The

estimation in which the bath was held as long ago as eighteen hundred years is apparent in the following distich : “ Balnea, Vina, Venus, corrumpunt corpora nostra ;

Corpora et roborant, balnea, vina, venus.”

10 . Finally, among the physical resources and helps come into consideration exercise and occupation. Not slothful inaction, the dolce -far-niente or blessed

be-nothing impassivity of existence is required, (for mind as well as body to keep its balance must have

employment*), but only abstraction from severe labor * “ Variam semper dant otia mentem .” -- LUCAN . 20 *

Opium .

234

and oppressive study. Not the " Socraticis sapientia

libris” nor exercises upon the calculus will meet the existing want; commend rather “ Instead of Euclid 's corollaria

The ratios of a jig or aria.”

Ball-playing and quoits, the saddle interchanging with the democrat-wagon , rail-car exercise to help

on digestion and to provoke lagging sleep, cheerful company, festive scenes and rural pastimes, — such are the agencies and agents that will help to disen thral the opium -bound prisoner , far transcending the

metamorphoses wrought by any fabled Asmodeus. II. But inasmuch as “ the life is more than meat,"

we must have a care in making provision for the man physical to regard with no blinking eye the

moral aspects and needs. We have to deal with sub jects whose will if not absolutely dormant is held

under the control of a superior and an extraneous force as well. This fact is tersely expressed in the language of Dr. John Reid : “ The idea that nervous

complaints are subject to the control ofthe will-power is a fallacy."

What avail then dialectic formularies

à -la -Sorbonne, or indeed only plain homilies of the hortatory cast addressed to the “ moral sense,” when that sense if not already dead and buried is at least

benumbed into a fatal torpidity ? “ Anchora an teneat quem non tenuere Penates ?”

Remonstrance though backed by reason rarely suffices

to make any effectual stand against the cravings of an impetuous bodily appetite :

General Therapeutics, and Moral Hygeiene. 235 . “ Reproaches come too late They search, but cure not."' *

12. Or if the penitent soul shivering in its agony

is yet alive to a sense of its deep degradation and galling bondage, not “ The February face , So full of frost, and storm ,and cloudiness,"

but the “ verba et voces” it is, the compassionating

look , the magnetizing pressure of the hand, the lute like tone of sympathetic recognition only that can moderate the present pang and revive the hopeful glow once more . Get a point d 'appui from which to make your approaches, bring out the key-note to which the strained heart-chords shall respond in har monious écho, and the battle is half won . Or sup pose the attack does not succeed in front then try a flank movement; if the attempt fails to -day renew

the trial to -morrow . t 13. A habit so overmastering as that of opium eating can be treated with no parleying, no com pounding , no temporizing. Vigilance on the part of friends can never with safety be relaxed while yet the

evil abides, however favorable in seeming the dispo sition of the patient. “ Di buona volente sta pierro l'inferno” — good resolutions resting upon naked

promises are scarcely more stable than “ the idle wind."

* “ Parcendum est animo miserabile vulnus habenti.” — OVID . + “ Nam quoniam variant animi, variamus et artes.” — Ibid .

236

Opium .

14 . Two false impressions (fantasies they might be

termed) are apt to possess the patient's mind ; the idea that a half-cure is better than nothing, and this other, that the use of “ confections after the art of

the apothecary " can obviate total abstinence. As to half-cures there are none such “ Vulnus in antiquum redit male firma cicatrix ;" —

then again the inexorable law , “ Touch not,” can make no accommodation with

imprudence and

wrong out of complaisance towards human infirmity . The conditions are rigid and the trial as by a fur

nace-ordeal, but the triumphs if secured will tran

scend all the mere succors of art : “ Illa Machaonis superantmedicamina succos.”

CHAPTER XXI. INSTITUTIONAL DISCIPLINE . “ Lupum tenere auribus.”' _ TERENCE. • “ Diseases desperate grown

By desperate remedies must be relieved.” — HAMLET.

1. A few Asylums for the exclusive treatment of inebriates — “ cities of refuge” they might be called —

have been organized in our country with chartered

privileges, and these are rendering great service in their way. Among the foremost in this labor of hu manity have been two large conterminous States, one having founded the “ Inebriate Asylum at Bingham

ton,” ofwhich Albert Day, M .D.,has the governance,* the other having established the “ Sanitarium ,” which

is located at Media ,near Philadelphia, and is in charge of Joseph Parrish , M .D . An institution of more re cent creation is the “ Michigan Inebriate Asylum ,” in

the care of E . H . Van Deusen , M . D . To recognize in these three superintendents persons in whom are combined in association with professional knowledge and administrative skill the amenities of the gentle man conjoined with the sympathies of the man, is only to express a just though summary appreciation of real but unpretentious worth .

2. The diversified disciplinary economyof treatment * He retired the presentyear.

( 237)

Opiuin .

238

so auspiciously inaugurated and so successfully pros ecuted at these establishments will better speak for itself in the cases subjoined , the records of which

have been so cheerfully and liberally furnished for publication here by the superintendents named .

3. Binghamton — Dr. Day. Case 1. N ., a soldier in the war of the Rebellion , having while in service

contracted a diarrhæa, on returning to his Connecti cut home had recourse to laudanum . Efforts reit

erated to accomplish a change were as often baffled perhaps by the recurrence of the flux , and a year wore on .

The dose by this had got to be 2 ounces.

Whiskey in addition was used freely and as a robo rant.

N . now entered the “ Home” at Boston (an

asylum then under Day's charge). The course was simple ; the narcotic was cut off entirely and at once, a single medicinal article having been substituted,

nitric acid . The patient though suffering acutely for several weeks from

his complication of infirmities

held out perseveringly nevertheless, and before three months had passed he was cured of his habit and of his malady besides. 4 . In encouragement of repentant yet wavering suf ferers is here introduced an extract from a letter ad dressed by the patient to his benefactor. “ The man who meddles with opium will come to perceive by and -by he is reposing on something other than a bed

of roses. Only through arduous and painful and in domitable persistence against obstacles well-nigh in surmountable will he with any certainty accomplish

his purpose. Courage and perseverance,nevertheless,

Institutional Discipline.

239

in trials renewed from day to day will effect his dis

enthralment at last and set him emancipate and free, again delivered from the terrific vision , the horrible nightmare that weighed upon me.” “ This case (re

marks Dr. D .) I reckon a cure. During the last ten · years I have had perhaps forty cases of analogous character, one-third ofwhich , so far as I have the evi

dence to judge upon , have turned out permanent recoveries.”

5 . Case 2. Mr. H . had been for a time upon pare goric , at the rate of i quart a day. The stimulus was stopped outright, and bromide of potassa was administered , forty grains every few hours at first

and for several days. The patientbecame quite com fortable by the sixth day. Fully renovated in three months he was then discharged . More than a year after he presented himself a second time at the asy . lum thoroughly re-established in health and self control. In the interval he had touched no stin .ulus of any kind , nor had he felt any desire for such . 6 . Case 3 . Mrs . C . J. P., an Iowa lady, æt. 36 years,

having had morphine prescribed according to offi cinal rule for a uterine malady, had got into the regular use and gone on thus for thirteen years .

The original quantity had from gradual augmenta

tions now swelled to one drachm , if not occasionally exceeding this limit. At the start the morphine was

cut off entirely ; but so extremewas the prostration under the reaction and in view of certain spasmodic symptoms it was deemed prudent to qualify the course a little, and accordingly a single grain was

240

• Opium .

given and for once only ; but as the same condition recurred in four days again , the dose was repeated and with like effect. The spasms did not return, but

a new perplexity presented itself, — an exanthem upon

the face with cædema. These symptoms, symptom atic as was suspected of the bromide (which had . been continued from the commencement of the treat ment in half-drachm doses every four hours), had

occasioned very considerable disquiet to the patient, but they declined directly under the employment of chloride of iron . In three months from now the catamenial flow which had been repressed for half a

year reappeared, and thenceforward not a dose more of morphine was given upon any pretext. “ To-day ,

February 13, 1869 (says D .), after a residence of six months with us, she sets out on her return home,

looking well, feeling well, and promising to do well.

I have been anxious to know how my protégée would get along in the outside world .”

In June following,

acting upon the suggestion of her friend she writes a letter for present use, of which the substance is given as follows :

7 . “ If I can be instruinental in reclaiming from the path of error a single person of my sex a sufferer

under opium , I shall feel well rewarded for the labor of inditing a personal history .

The beginning was

in the administering of powders by a doctor for the double purpose of allaying pain and inducing sleep , and such was the course until days had become

months and months had glided into years. Mean time my medicine had come to be felt a necessity ,

Institutional Discipline.

241

and I found myself at length a prisoner, as I have

been ever since until my sojourn with you began , i.e. thirteen years. * * *

Let no one be deluded into

holding converse with the sorcerer, supposing he can say at will, ‘ Thus far and no further,' for all such resolves fade into airy nothings like mists before the

orient sun. The charmer decoys by offering a fruit, a fruit “ Like to the apples on the Dead -Sea shore , All ashes to the taste .”

More cruel than Juggernauth is this implacable tyrant, for he prolongs the agony atwill,weighing you down as the camel's back is loaded ; the idol, remorseless in purpose as he is, shows more mercy in the act, for he crushes his victim

into annihilation .

* * *

Opium deadens the heart and dries up the sensibili ties all, and though stimulative upon the brain at the first it invariably precipitates its victim into a region of gloom , where all the bright and good aspirations

dwindle down to the zero -point or die out altogether. The soul having now lapsed into a moody fatalism uncheered by a stray gleam of celestial light is fain to find refuge in the solitary self-isolation of grim

despair. If conscious of a still surviving existence

we feel rather as if wewere barred outside the gates of real life. The night-visions, the tableaux-repre sentations that haunt us in sleep only mock us in the reach after their intangible grandeur. * * * To tamper with opium by any sort of compromise is like inviting the enemy within the castle -gate by first

lifting the portcullis. The single and sole security 21

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Оріит.

against the satanic influence lies in total abstinence maintained at every hazard — a mighty achievement

verily, but in view of the self-conquest a victory as glorious as it is life-long. In such musings my better nature awoke out of its lurid eclipse in a

struggle for a loftier and serener plane of existence, the brighter sphere of a reassured faith .

The porta

eburnea , the gate-way of dream -land and shadow was passed, and the glorious sunlight illumined existence once more. At no period have I known enjoyment

so pure, so placid , as within the last few weeks. I can think but of one thing only , my happy deliver ance from an iron bondage ; and I now appreciate and enjoy this bright, this beautiful world , as one

who having long groped in thick darkness suddenly on the liſting of the veil emerges again into the

clearer day, to behold anew the joyous earth fresh mantled in rich and varied beauty. Can you marvel at my enthusiasm when iny very identity seems to

myself a paradox ? Only a few months ago I was a disjointed atom

careering at random in the moral

universe ; now I am united anew to nature and life again , and so for henceforward I bid farewell to ennuiwith all its memories and all its pangs. How inexpressible the satisfaction to feel you are buoyed up and sustained upon reason's equable current, no

longer liable to be ' tossed to and fro ' on a billowy surge that is able to absorb and ingulf the stur diest and boldest !"

8. Case 4. Mr. S., æt. 55, auctioneer, of New Jersey . Six years of habituation — amount used at

.

Institutional Discipline. the time of entry 3 ounces of laudanum .

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Present

symptoms are a glassy lustre upon the eye and a continual revolving in the orbit with a wild expres

sion , nervous tremulousness and an unsteady gait, a mental weakness and wavering yet with a spirit reconciled as it were to its fall. The laudanum was withdrawn and with his acquiescence, but occasion

ally and for moderating recurring tremors a small quantity of morphine was given disguised so as not to be recognizable. At four months from the

time of entry he is reported as improving, though the case on the whole holds out indifferent promise only.

9 . Case 5. Mr. L ., author. This subject was too restive to bear wholesome restraint, for though he could be put on short allowance yet he would not “ stay put.” An advocate of the reductionary method

in the abstract, he was a somewhat inconsistent illus tration in the concrete ; for he had been reforming in

his fashion until he had “ reformed up” to the scale of 36 grains of morphine. “ Qui ergo alium doces annon teipsum doces ?” It were pleasanter to chron icle one more name subtracted from the long list of

failures to be transferred to the memorabilia column, — but when ? Quien sabe ? 10. Case 6 . There was one Dr. T ., a man of gross form and ofhabits to match ,who out of complaisance to a certain Dr. Bolus had abjured whiskey and gone over to opium . Having strayed away from quarters

one day so that hemight have “ a good time of it,” he appears in his performance to have gone through

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Opium .

the entire figure. Between a Wednesday morning and the following Friday night (so declares a par ticular friend of his who had looked after him for the time), he had provided himself with and con sumed 6 pints of laudanum , and for a backer 3 quarts

of brandy besides. Not all of the laudanum found its way by absorption into the circulation certainly , as was evident from the charged condition of the

dejecta. Notwithstanding his temporary detention

at this Jericho, this patient got sufficiently the better of his opium -associations to warrant his discharge after a further residence of four weeks. His death followed a year after but from no connection with

his late habits, for the old appetite had subsided not

to revive again . 11. The Sanitarium - Dr. Parrish . Case 7 . Mr. U .,

merchant, age 35 years, weight 170 pounds. Mor phia taken after an operation upon hæmorrhoidal tu mors had been continued for its general tranquillizing

influence, as also for the control it exerted over an existing diarrhea. Five grains (a large dose to begin

with ) by three years became 30 grains, though indeed no very precise measure was followed, as the patient

frequently carried the vial in his pocket and poured from it by guess. All this interval had passed with

out apparent damage to the system , when all at once the smouldering fires within began to blaze. Colicky cramps (an impression as it were a mangling of the stomach and abdomen ) would force him out of bed to

rush forth for change into the sharp air of midnight, only to get back again jaded and exhausted , and to

Institutional Discipline.

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endure as hemight a feverish restlessness as oppressive

as it was unremitting. Attimes the sense of agony and an apprehended fatality would rouse him into a tran sient furore and impel him to battle with the arch

fiend once more; but the enemy was too much for him in the main. On a certain time after an absti nence for three days, when his nerves all through him seemed to have been set a crawling like so many snakes and visions of ghouls and demons distracted

his aching brain , he was at his own urgent soliciting

restrained by a binding with cords; but to such a frenzy did he get worked into under the confinement it was judged necessary by friends and the doctors

both to renew the morphine. - This regimen appears to have in a manner opened the patient's eyes to a clearer sense of his actual condition , and to the Sani- . tarium he now turned as his only hopeful recourse.

An active reduction of dose pushed to the point of tolerance having been reached , the subtractions were

now so graduated along through several weeks that the per-diem quantity had come to be two grains. But here came on an exaggeration of all his previous symptoms. Excessive relaxation of the entire frame,

diarrhoea and cold sweats so distressing they would extort involuntary groans and sobbings followed along , and amid all this the hair would become

electric, and from that as a focus vibrative impulses would dart through the body sharp as the twinges made by pinching in a vise. These last symptoms abated , and some of them from the application of ice

over the spine.

The reductions were still being 21 *

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Opium .

continued, but by successive differences so inconsid erable as the roth , the 20th , and even the 40th of a

grain — such sometimes is the sensitiveness of the

system in this morbid state. Nux vomica , a stout diet, the vapor-bath ,cheerful society and new scenery all contributing, had by three months so renovated the patient, he was then able to return home and

renew his business. The natural appetite so perverted before was re -established as though it had scarcely been disturbed. Death was cheated of his expected trophy this time.*

12. Case 8. Mr. V ., a professional gentleman of parts and culture and of high position politically and

socially , became an inmate at the age of 53. Of a delicate physical organization and with a keen moral .sensitiveness he had been a victim to morphine for

seven years, but the dose had never exceeded 10 grains. Five monthswere required to put the patient

into condition to go back to his family again . 13. Case 9. Mr. W ., a merchant, of the age of 35 , active and energetic , had for several years used lau

danum to the extent of 200 and even 300 drops. A month 's stay sufficed for his restoration .

14 . Case 10 . A student, now 20 years old , had been a victim for half his life to alcoholic beverages and opiates variously alternated. The last two years he

had been using pills consisting of opium and hashisch

combined, 16 grains of the one to 8 of the other. * “ Vitam Apollineæ valido medicamine prolis Atque Pæonia, Dite indignante, recepit.” – OVID .

Institutional Discipline.

247

Letting up sometimes on the pills he must needs have liquor in their place. The pills, reduced from the first, were dispensed with wholly in two weeks,

but so grave had the symptoms established by the alcoholic poisoning become, he was detained for further treatment. At the end of a year from that he was still undischarged.

15. Case 11. This is the case by the hypodermic method , introduced in chap . v. The expected effect after using the syringe would show itself in ten minutes, or

in half the time perhaps. “ That this course (Dr. P .) should have been persevered in amid sufferings from ugly abscesses produced by the puncturings is an anomaly worthy of note, evincive of the intense ex

aggeration to which an artificial passion may be wrought up in an unavailable struggle against a ter rific bondage. To have been two years in a dream ! with muscles wasting and strength vanishing and domestic pleasures no longer presenting attractive ness ,the miserable captive cameat length to perceive

that his sole remaining course was to resign himself to the sympathy and guidance of those who could

feel for him and act for him .”

The treatment pro

posed was a reduction upon pills, a change to which

the patient readily assented ; but such was the fasci

nation for the instrument he was allowed to change back, though temporarily only. Tonics with baths, generous diet and novel scenery gradually lifted the

prostrate spirit,and cheerful hope helped the reviving self-control to resume its sway. The reductionary course was extended over five weeks, and the only

248

Орiнт.

embarrassing symptom now surviving was two large femoral abscesses. The patient, entirely emancipated

by this from his captivity and recruited in strength and with his wonted cheerfulness restored , was able to return to his home, and to resume his professional calling with prospects as cheering as ever . 16 . “ Our experience in the treatment of opium

cases (observes Dr. Parrish) has satisfied us, it is neither wise nor humane to deprive the sufferer of his usual allowance all at once but rather to grant a certain indulgence. Our practice is in the general to curtail by two-thirds, and upon the remainder to

make reductions by inconsiderable fractional differ ences, as the tenth of a grain or only one-half that.

For the rest,a liberal dietary, the steam -bath , quinine and iron , strychnine and the bromides in various combination constitute our chief reliance. The re

sults here are very encouraging. ' In our opinion of the cases miscellaneously presenting one-third are curable if conducted under Institutional régime.” 17. Kalamazoo — Dr. Van Deusen. Case 12. Mrs. P., married. Took opium for phlegmasia dolens. Period five years, amount two eighth -ounce bottles per week . Cure in four months. The leading agents employed were hyoscyamus and camphor. 18. Case 13. F., a woman suffering from hæmor rhoids. The quantities used had been as in Case 12, the term six years. The patient was restored to comfortable health and discharged at six months. 19 . Case 14. H ., a woman of 52 years, who had been using the pure gum to the extent of 25 grains,

Institutional Discipline.

249

was treated satisfactorily in 1861, and was known to

be faithfully holding on as late as six years after. 20 . Case 15. Mr. B ., banker, emaciated and obliged to relinquish business for what had been diagnosed as angina pectoris , had sought relief in morphine.

The quantity used was what would lie on a half dime, repeated twice in the day . Constipation (a symptom not now appearing for the first) was regu larly relieved by the syringe. Singularly indeed and

in the face of ordinary experience, no sooner was the morphine begun upon than the general health im proved and his embonpoint with it. At this very day now eleven years since the morphine course was

commenced he is able to conduct business, being the head of a large banking-house. This is a case

clearly falling under the section of the “ utilities.” 21. Case 16 . Mr. B ., a sufferer from necrosis in a limb, had used morphine or McMunn , one or both ,

for five to six years. Having been cured of the local disease by suitable medication he then substituted brandy in place of the opiates, and this he proceeded to reduce by successive graduations, until he was

able ere long to dispense with all stimulants ofwhat ever kind.

22. Miss F., a lady of position in society, who with the example of her mother in view had been ad

dicted to opium for twenty out of the thirty -five years of her life , was very desirous of becoming an

asylum -patient, but as such was declined. “ Never theless (remarks Dr. V . D .) our experience has satis

fied us, that a large share of the cases deemed as

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Opiuin .

having got beyond the reach of medical aid can be successfully conducted ; but then on this one condi tion only , that the physician shall have the entire and exclusive control.”

23. “ Characteristic and peculiar symptoms ob served with us (V . D .) are among others, constipa tion almost invariably present when not alternating with diarrhæa (though indeed marked exceptions

do occur), sleep faint in some yet not troublous from dreams so often, or heavy and lethargic in others, and anorexia , the more in the morning. The patient

is disposed to rise not until an advanced hour and with no desire for breakfast, though a late dinner or a later supper may be taken with some relish . As for anything enjoyable as proceeding from any intel lectual activity or any emotionalmovement, we have

yet to see the very first exemplification. For the primary induction of the habit the stated physician is so commonly responsible that the onus probandi in exculpation rests upon him by all fair presumption.

As for efforts at reformation voluntarily undertaken and successfully carried through , the cases are so ex tremely exceptional they are never to be counted on , but when a course of treatment has been submitted

to and faithfully prosecuted to the end, the result is directly the other way.”

24. The query has no doubt been raised in the mind of the reader - Wherefore go to an Asylum as such at all ? For one single but decisive and all controlling reason, that the opium -eater , whether

really or only hypothetically insane according to a

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251

discriminative nosologic nomenclature, is pro -tem pore and virtually held as such , being under the

dominance of an appetite against which a struggling will exerts a force as feebly repellent as it were of an

Achemenides writhing in the huge arms of a Poly phemus.

25. “ Segregation from outside influences and em barrassments , isolation by moral force rather than imprisonment proper with physical restraint," Dr.

Day holds to be the true doctrine. But suppose a residence at an asylum is refused or declined, should it not for the common good be made imperative and compulsory ? and if confinement and seclusion have become indispensable wherefore grant the patient at

any time the douceur of a furlough for an ad -interim

visit to the “ back- settlements,” a privilege he will surely covet and entreat for over and again ? Pro videwholesome occupation for body and mind both ,* but keep the subject chez lui, “ as a child under tutors

and governors." 26 . A second inquiry, an addendum to the first, here interposes itself. In case the habit has been

broken up and the patient has become apparently re possessed of his self-control, what earnest is afforded

for his steadfast perseverance ? The question is not an unembarrassing one. There is no “ deus ex ma

china,” no subtle emanation working outward from an Institutional regimen that shall certainly neu

tralize recurring temptations and give steadfastness * “ Da vacuæ menti, quo teneatur, opus.” - Ovid .

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Opium .

to the wavering. Friendly supervision extended be yond the period of official control may go far to sup port a fluctuating mind in a reeling body, but results accomplished the lapse of years only can determine. We have to cure the patient first, and then to keep

him cured . As Priscian well observes, “ Duo sunt officia medicinæ , unum quo sanatur infirmitas, aliud

quo custoditur sanitas.” 27. Any supposed objection to incarceration in an asylum , whether the detention be voluntarily in curred or otherwise imposed , has no support in ex

perience. The idea of any personal degradation and loss of caste growing out of temporary association with inferiors and indifferent persons is held to be

of the veriest insignificance.

The last thing appre

hended by the patient himself is the notion, that his existing fortuitous relation can in any way compro mise his social status “ beyond the lines.”

CHAPTER X XII. NARCOTIC STIMULI- ALCOHOLICS.

“ Si bene commemini, sunt quinque causæ bibendi; Hospitis adventus, præsens sitis, atque futura, Vel liquoris sapor, vel altera quælibet causa ." -- DEAN ALDRICH .

“ Sauter, danser, et faire les tours, Et boire vin blanc et vermeil, Et ne faire rien tous les jours

Que compter escuts au soleil.” — RABELAIS.

1. “ One of the first exertions of human ingenuity

(Dr. Robertson the historian ) would seem to have been , to discover some compound possessing an in

toxicating quality ; and hardly any nation has existed so rude, so devoid of invention , as not to have suc

ceeded in the fatal search .” Such promptings have their foundation in the innate constitution of the man. As Dr. Letheby observes : “ In view of the significant fact that so many of the natural juices tend to a spontaneous fermentation , there must be in the physiology of these ferments a something ger mane to such constitution if we can only find it out.” Thus Johnston also : “ What constitutional cravings common to the race have thus prompted to so sin gularly uniform results , and through how vast an

amount of individual experiences must these results

have been reached and ascertained !” Morel in ad verting to drinking-habits also brings out the great fuct specified : “ Usages qui prouvent la généralisation 22

( 253 )

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Opium .

du besoin invincible que ressentent tous les peuples du monde, de se provoquer des sensations factices

au risque de perdre momentanement la raison et de s'exposer aux maladies les plus graves.”

2. A Report prepared by a committee, Joseph Par rish , M . D ., Chairman , which received unanimous adoption from the State Medical Society of Pennsyl vania in 1869, contains the following section : “ There are constitutional tendencies inherent in mankind to seek artificial support. In vindication of this state ment we find in every soil and under every climate

some indigenous product, from which man in what ever stage of civilization extracts an intoxicating ingredient. * * * In popular ethics all beverages containing alcohol are classed among the poisons, and so popular ignorance is called upon to raise its voice of condemnation. One truth , however, is very

certain to maintain its ground amid the din and clashings of contending parties, and that is, that neither nature nor science nor experience can ever be obliterated by any swell-tide of ad-captandum

harangue emanating from those who not unlikely ‘ know not what they say or whereof they affirm ,'

nor by any ipse -dixit of a self-constituted tribunal as arrogant in declaiming against ascertained physio logical laws as it is ignorant of the true interpretation of such laws. Nature is the founder , Science the expositor, and Experience the judge, that must guide

and control and establish our decisions." * * Vide The Probe, No. 3, 1869.

Narcotic Stimuli- Alcoholics.

255

3. The propensity to forced stimulation upon vege table juices and extracts dates back even to the Arkite

era. Noah only a little after the disembarkation upon Ararat “ planted a vineyard and drank of the wine.” Not a people has been found, “ Barbarian , Scythian ,

bond or free,” but has produced by art or has pro cured through traffic some sort of substance, that should give tension to the nerve-fibrils against im

paired function or stay the exhaustive wear upon the framework under the encroachments of disease .

John of China drinks Samshu, and his Japanese cousin the Sakchi; Java and Formosa distil Arrack, the Bootan soldier plucks courage out of Chong, the Yemenese luxuriate upon Kaad, the Koriaks get deliriously drunk upon Amanita (Langsdorff ). Asses' milk affords Koumiss to the Calmuck , out of millet

the Kaffir procures Pombie. Rue (Peganum Har mala ), so highly esteemed in Syria and Greece (Lan

derer ), is what Solyman the Magnificentwas wont to get intoxicated upon (Belonius ). Barley -whiskey on the Clyde answers to Usquebaugh on the Liffey, Eau

de-vie in the Gironde to the Apple-jack of the Jersey mynheer. The“ free Switzer" proffers you Absinthe of 72 degrees if you will, the “ universal Yankee nation ” quaff Bourbon at discretion , i.e. to distraction . Nie

buhr found both brandy and wine abounding in Sana, Kotzebue saw punch in plenty at Erivan . Out of

themanihot the Araucanian gets Masato , the Cholo brews Chica from corn, from the agave the Mestizo

draws his inebriating Pulque, the piper methysticum affords to the tribes of Oceania the Kava, in the

256

Oprum . .

maniacal furor which Tonga (a liquor derived from the datura ) inspires the Cuzcan Indian seeks by re

newed conjurations communion afresh with the shades of his ancestral sires.

4. The Vine has well-nigh attained a universality of domiciliation . Babylonia has the Sariform wine, Palmyra the Sarkhadi, Georgia the Gwhino. The Schiraz of Persia rivals Xeres de Frontignac, Con stantia of the Cape challenges Bordeaux of the Ga

ronne, and Muscadine of Samos contends with Ten eriffe of the Canaries ; the Rhine valley in the North responds to the Duero valley in the South , Rous sillon of the Pyrenees eastward to Angelica of the

California slope. What the vine is to Europe and the West the palm has been to Africa and Asia . Marco

Polo found palm -wine in Kathay, and the palm -tree (as Park observed) so universal in Africa, is reckoned

rather as her peculiar heritage. 5. The mythic symposia , those banquets of the deities assembled in conclave, do but emblematize

the universaland insatiable propensity for stimulating liquors. The Persians had a saying, “ Our drink is the blood of our enemies , our goblets are their skulls.” Believe that Odin and Thor in their orgies at Valhalla did indeed imitate the fashion , they were but unconscious types of the cloistered ascetics that

Aourished in the golden age of monachism , whose privilege it was to quaff their “ vinum theologicum ," rilling as it flowed, from out of the bleached brain -case that had appertained to somenow extinguished mem ber of the brotherhood.

Narcotic Stimuli - Alcoholics.

257

“ How themonks in their day, Must have swigged it away ! O , they let not a cluster escape ;

Till cheeks, lips, and nose (As you well may suppose) · Got as purple and plump as the grape." *

6. Certain other substancesbelonging chiefly to the vegetable kingdom have widely ministered to the common appetite. Opium is the familiar associate from the Chinese frontier on the East across Asia entire even into Northern Africa ; the Cannabis of

Hindustan,holding divided empire with opium , has

travelled “ from India even unto Ethiopia” (Living stone); the Areca or Betel ( Tembul in · Persia ) is chewed in the Asian Archipelago, as is the Coca

among the aboriginal Peruvians. Mate (an ilex ) sup plies Paraguay and Bolivia with a household drink , as does the Ledum to Labrador. Coffee affords the common beverage to Java, Turkey, Germany and

France, our States South,and Brazil; in Italy, Spain , and Central America Cocoa is the favorite rather,

whereas Tea holds the supremacy throughout China and Japan , in Russia , Great Britain , and the United * Note. “ Sleek -headed men and such as sleep o’nights,” were those purists ofmonastic type, with much to enjoy in compen sation for their formal “ renunciation of the world , the flesh , and the

devil.”

As early as the sixth century they were granted a regular

allowance of ale out of an assessment upon householders , and they became scandalized furthermore at a later day in their immoderate

use of coffee. From certain statutes in the Justinian Codex, it was

nothing strange, it would appear, for a “ reverendissimusmonachus”

to be caught astray “ in tabernis.” 22 *

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Opium .

States North . As for tobacco its nationality has become cosmopolitan , for whither can you go and “ the weed” has not gone before ?

These various

stimuli may have their distinct provinces, or what is not uncommon may by association constitute a kind of “ close corporation ,” sometimes in triads or again in quaternions — a fellow -feeling makes them kin .

7. Alcoholic liquors. Wine is fermented grape juice; brandy (brannt or burnt-wine) is the essential spirit procured from wine by the process of distilla tion . Wine, chemically viewed, is a product of the

grape through spontaneous evolution ; Alcohol is an educt derived artificially from any fermented liquor that has been subjected to the still. Pure spirit of wine (otherwise known as Cologne-spirit) is alcohol depurated from all foreign admixture in the process

termed rectification. Ale is the fermented liquor ob

tained from the cereals, such as barley and rye ; cider is fermented apple- juice.

Both are kindred to the

juice ofthe vine ; ale being barley -wine, cider, apple wine.

8 . Wines and their Congeners. Zythus or barley wine (booza or ben )-- the same as the Pelusian — was

accounted a gift of Osiris, says Theophrastus. ' The Romans ascribed their barley -liquor (cerevisia ) to

Ceres, goddess of corn ; to Jamsheed the founder of Persepolis who was of the eighth dynasty from Noah the Persians refer their wine, and ale has its original patron in Gambrinus of Frankfort. Bacchus is fabled to have been commissioned by the “ dii ma

Narcotic Stimuli - Alcoholics.

259

jores” in council to plant the vine throughout the habitable earth ; and certainly he has executed the trust in its largest amplitude. Homer lauds the

juice ; Alexis saith of Lesbos, “ Lesbio liquore non est suavior ;" Horace eulogizes the Falernian , the Cæcuban , the Mareotic , the Samian ; and as for Anacreon his muse recognizes but two themes, love and wine. That wine was known in India many centuries since is indubitable from the story of Saty

avarim (a Noachic myth ), and in China even earlier if we accept tradition . A colony of Phocæans carried the vine with them to Marseilles A. C. 600 ; wine was

in common use among the Romans two hundred years after the Romulean era ; and Xenophon while conducting the ten thousand on their retreat from Cunaxa found the palm abounding in Babylonia and

Armenia. Pliny, the indefatigable botanist of his day, enumerates one hundred and seventy -three wines made from grape-juices alone.

9 . The wines of antiquity were of two classes ; sweet wines (ydevzos, mustum , the pure juice or the

same lightly fermented) and wines matured. Must proper (used immediately upon expression ) — the same that was presented by his cup-bearer to Pha . raoh (Gen. xl- 11) - greeted Cook at Tahiti and the

Landers in Central Africa . Must reduced by ebulli tion to one-third was known as sapa ; if concen

trated to one-half it took the name of defrutum ; an article corresponding to the palm -syrup of the pres ent day , the dibs or debash of Syria and the sheerah

of Persia, the same in which the Druses largely

260

•

Opium .

traffic . Marco Polo while travelling over Tartary met with the same. The “ vin cuit” of Provence is a grape-syrup of this class .

10 . Sweet Wines. Cato (De ReRustica) says, only the first running if unfermented could be preserved any number of months. Columella speaks of the diffi culty in preserving even the defrutum , declaring that fermentation preceded by a concentration to the ex tent of one part in twenty was essential to the preser

vation of the liquor. Such appears to have been the sort of wine Horace invites Mæcenas to partake of

so liberally in commemoration of a common friend's fortuitous escape from a danger that had impended : “ Sume, Mæcenas, cyathos amici Sospitis centum - procul omnis esto Clamor et ira .”

In Arabia there was practised a mode of making a very mild wine, which consisted in packing raisins or dates into jars with water above them , and then

burying the whole in earth to undergo a mild fer mentation such as a reduced temperature would favor.

11. Fermented Wines. These wines are inebriating of course, and such were some of the wines specified

in Homer. Antinous is slain holding fast to the fas cinating goblet, and Aeneas after wine is scarcely able to run clear of the swift-footed Achilles. Hec

tor though he had declined the cup proffered by Queen Hecuba is stigmatized, though falsely indeed,

as being “ wine-heavy.” Anacreon 's prescription was

Narcotic Stimuli — Alcoholics.

261

to reduce with water two to one. The wine of Cyprus famed for its strength as well as excellence would kindle at the touch of fire. Such was the wine which the Venusian poet invites Thaliarchus

to partake of against the biting cold outside : “ Deprome quadrimum Sabina,

O Thaliarche, merum diota.”

Of such wines Hortensius the friend of Cicero is re lated to have left stored in his cellars ten thousand cadi. The wines of Persia and Arabia were such, as is apparent in the story of the “ Three Ladies of

Bagdad,” wherein the porter having got top-heavy begs permission to remain over night, so that he

may in the mean time sleep off the fumes. Persian wines are lighter than the European , but are intoxi

cating nevertheless (Rev. Dr. Justin Perkins). “ Wine mingled” (vide Prov. ix -2 on Wisdom ) was wine diluted. Olearius saw such at Téhraun .

12. The Wines of Palestine. For the reconciling of the controversies concerning these wines, in addi tion to the very satisfactory deductions from biblical exegesis we have the concurrent testimony of those

learned and observant missionaries, Smith , Perkins, Van Dyck , and Labarree, as compacted by the Rev.

Dr. Laurie.* According to their record Grape-juice as used in Central and Western Asia is subjected to three diverse processes. There is the Tirosh (must) used as it comes fresh from the press or as abstracted

from the vat while fermentation is commencing ; then -

-

* Vide Bibliotheca Sacra, Jan . 1869.

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Opium .

there is a syrupy liquor (Dibs), and the third form is

the fermented liquor, Wine proper. 13. Thewine added by Joseph to themesses sent to his brethren (Gen. xliii- 34) may have been a freshly -expressed juice, the same as was in familiar

use in the Egyptian palace. Such wine has no pre servative quality , not for a few days only unless reduced by evaporation to the extent of five per-cent.

at the lowest. The dibs of the Hebrews was grape juice boiled down, just as with us cane-syrup is con centrated at the sugar-mill or apple -juice at the farm house, and was used as we partake of honey at the tea-table, but was never drunk as a wine. Jacob's present sent to Joseph in Egypt (Gen. xliii - 11) " honey” as translated — was really dibs, the same

that was an article of traffic at Tyre and for which Judah was a customer (Ezek . xxvii- 17).

To the eye

(says Russell) it has much the appearance of a crude coarse honey.

14. The Hebrew term Yayin , the Greek Olvos, and the Latin Vinum are of generic rather than of specific

application, comprehending all forms and transmuta tions of grape-juice whatsoever.

Tirosh (mustum )

and Ausis (new wine) signify about the same as lleuzos. Sikera , importing any intoxicating liquor (St. Jerome), and Shemarim , a synonym (as in Isa . v II), are applied respectively to the strong wines and to “ strong drink ," and sometimes interchangeably ( Theodoret of Syria ). The Syriac word for wine

proper Hainro (Heb. hamar) is synonymous with fermentation , and there is identical usage in the ex

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pression , " pure blood of the grape” (Deut. xxxii- 14), which Patrick interprets as a generous strong wine, the very expression used by Achilles Tatius in giving a definition of wine. 15. Tirosh . Such a wine was derived from the vine

yards of En -gedi (Cant. i– 14 )— what Fabroni found to be a drink of a very mild flavor. The “ scented wine of Lebanon ” (Hos. xiv - 7) and the “ wine of Hel

bon ” also , so highly in request at Damascus (Ezek .

xxvii- 18 ), were of the same quality . That there inhered in tirosh an intoxicant force appears from Hos. iv - 11. This same exhilarative property is further indicated in Isa. xxiv — 7 and in Zech . ix - 15 . So of ausis (a product of fermentation plainly ), as ap

pears from Ezek. xliv ,21 and Joel i– 5. The gleukos of the New Testament (Acts ii - 13) was certainly ac

counted inebriative — a wine plainly answering to that indicated in a comparison made by the patriarch of Uz, - viz ., “ a wine having no vent and ready to burst like new bottles” (bags ) (Job xxxii- 19).

16 . Sikera, an inebriating wine plainly from which

the Nazarite was to refrain “ all the days of his sepa ration,” might be used subject of consequence to such limitation (Numb . vi- 3, 4 ). The priests were inhibited the use of sikera on entering the house of the Lord (Lev. x - 9 ) ; but wherefore, unless because such wine was intoxicating ?

The prevalent use of

inebriating wines from times,remote and all along is

a fact rendered indubitable by narratives and allusions that crowd upon one another, as in the instances of Noah after the disembarkation upon Ararat, of Lot

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Opium.

at Sodom , of Boaz feasting and Ruth gleaning (Ruth iii- 7 ), of Nabal who made a feast for his shearers

(I. Sam . xxv - 36 ), of Ahasuerus and his seven -days' banquet (Esther i -7 to 10), and of Belshazzar (Dan. v 4 , 5 ). The injunction in Prov. xxiii - 31, “ Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup (exhibits the deep-blood hue), when it

moveth itself aright, (equably elastic as a well-fer mented juice and not violently and irregularly effer

vescing)” , is applied obviously to a wine which taken to excess would bring on inebriation and work ulti mate harm . Be it observed here as pertinent in this

connection , that the phraseology descriptive of the

feast made in honor of the prodigal son corresponds to the soliloquy of the rich landlord where he pro

poses to himself to “ take his ease and eat and drink and bemerry ," so soon as his barn-building should be got through with (Luke xv - 24 , 32 and xii- 19). 17 . In the Old Testament records wine and sikera are used in instances not a few as interchangeable

synonyms— (vide Numb. vi- 3 , Prov. xx - 1, Isa. v - 11,

Micah ii- 11, and also Numb. xxviii- 7 where “ strong wine” is prescribed to be “ poured unto the Lord for a drink -offering ' ) : in the Gospels and Epistles distinc

tions correspondent to the preceding no longer appear , and wine wherever spoken of indicates a liquor that has undergone fermentation. In the account of the marriage-scene at Cana ( John ii - 1 to 10 ), the sympo siarch ( arbiter bibendi” or “ magister morum ,” as variously styled) notes with evident surprise that the good wine had been kept in reserve to the last ; — lan

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guage scarcely intelligible certainly otherwise than upon the presumption , that the taste of the guests , keen and appreciative in the beginning, was likely to become less nice and discriminating with the pro

gress of the entertainment. No such obtunding of

the sense could have been produced by the using of a syrupy drink .

So in Luke v - 37, 38, new bottles

(leathern bags stouter of course than old ones) are suggested for new wine, as being more resistive

against the gaseous action from within. Such inter pretation is supported by a distinction made by Jesus on another occasion in favor of “ old wine” — what

could have been none other surely than a ferment (vide chap. xxiv -42).

18. What was the character of the Sacramental

wine ? Now the Supper was originally a feast, though a very temperate and sober one. The insti tution is reckoned to have had for its type the Jewish Passover, in the celebration of which latter, says the Mishna, nothing else than a fermented liquor was legally allowable. To this day (Churchill) the Nes torians in imitation use for the consecrated bread a cake in which both wine and oil have been commin

gled. Gentile (Roman) wines were eschewed by the Jewish rabbis , for the reason that they were unreli

able as wines proper, being in frequent instances “ sulphured,” for the purpose of arresting fermenta tion through the absorption of free oxygen .

That

the cup might be taken “ unworthily ” (i.e. to excess ) is plain from I. Cor. xi-21, 22, 29 (Prof. Green of Princeton ). 23

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Opiun.

19. Ale. The word Beer (Saxon bere) signifies bar ley . One quart of sweet wort represents six ounces

of the grain (Thompson ). Burton ale contains twice the extractive as compared with others. The less the alcoholic proportion the greater is the nutritive power. Of the best specimens are ales from Edin burgh and porter from London . Ale is not of course deficient in nutriment because ofbeing diluted . Con

centrated foods like the “ pemmican ” of the Arctic voyager are an alternative necessity rather. These nutrients have their analogical relations. Ferrugi nous waters which combine the fixed or basic ingre dients in extreme tenuity only are farmore efficacious than any artificial imitations of superior ponderable

strength. 20. Lager (ccllar Beer is of about half the strength

of ale proper. Three bushels of barley with 172 pounds of hopsmake a barrel.

This is the beer of

Germany. The consumption in Europe and in the United States too is indeed wondrous. In Bavaria there has been within twenty years an advance upon the original of a hundred per-cent. In the North of

France and in Paris especially beer is fast superseding wine. The average in Bavaria is 133 litres per indi vidual for the year ; in Vienna about half that (Cheval

lier).* A field -hand is allowed 7 litres per day the year through. There is besides a Weissbeer,brewed * Note. The consumption of ale in England has been computed as being at the rate of one barrel per annum for all ages ; in the United States, beer-drinkers proper (men mostly , women some, and children fewer) average about 40 gallons yearly.

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for the occasion and out of wheat alone without the hop, which about corresponds in strength to English

small-beer. This can be drunk almost as freely as water, and in the sultry days when the dog -star rages

with perhaps more impunity (not to say advantage) than a drawing from the soda-fountain , being not only refrigerantbut in a degree roborative also. This weiss appears to be in a manner a revival of English ale made out of the grain alone, as in “ the good old days” “ When bills were short and credit shorter, And out of malt they brewed their porter.”

One might suspect Rabelais had seen something of beer-drinkers,certainly by anticipation,when hemakes

a Pantagruelian exclaim ,“ Jen'entendspas le théorique, le pratique je m 'en ayde - Bouvez toujours !” This practical exposition of a physical want appears any

thing else than a mere sentimental craving, com mended as it is by the indorsement of Caledonia 's

poet in an Epistle to his friend Horace Smith : “ Mymuse sentimentally craves British beer. Hail, Britannia, hail! With thy flag on the foam of the waves,

And the foam on thy flagons of ale !"

King Louis of Bavaria , who, as reported of, subsists

upon eggs and lager in the main , can dispose (so they say ) of 4 litres at a sitting. 21. Cider. The “ succus ex pomis vinosissimus," as called by Tertullian , was well known to Pliny. In Normandy is a primitive and very robust popula tion , among whom cider as a table -beverage is in

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universal use. The general favor it holds in the popular mind is indicated in a saying current there,

“ Qui s'abreuve de l'eau est un méchant.”

In the

Devon district also cider is common to all from the youngest upward,as generally as is Cette wine among the peasantry of France. Its innocuousness appears to be evidenced in the high longevity that obtains, a large percentage of the people regularly transcending

the allotted period of threescore and ten . In Guern

sey and Jersey too, where few people die short of 70, cider abounds.* A very grateful as well as salu brious drink in a droopy state of the system when the stomach now abnormally sensitive reluctates against almost everything in the shape of food or drink , and when tea and coffee and very likely wine

too have become the invalid 's aversion, is this same pure liquor from the apple-orchard, now taken with

avidity and a relish. Kindred to this is an additional resource, bitter-ale.

22. Fermentation belongs to nature's alchemy ; dis tillation is the product of scientific art. Whether or not such process was known as early as the seventh century, as an expression of Geber's, “ stillatio per

descensum ,”would seem faintly to indicate, orwhether * Note. That cider moderately (or even immoderately ) taken as a

beverage consists with fushed health and a prolonged life is no new doctrine, antedating as it certainly does as far back as when the School of Salernum gave utterance to its oracular precepts :

“ Jam sua Naustiaci jactent pyra pomaque semper, De quibus elicies mustum calidosque liquores ; Quod si sorbebis pinguesces atque valebis.”

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it pertains to a considerably later epoch , is a point involved in some doubt.

The invention was clearly

known to Albucasis in the beginning ofthe fourteenth century , but before this is the narrative concerning the “ veiled prophet” Al Mokhanna, which refers his

death to self-precipitation into a vat ofaqua-fortis (such liquor being a product ofthe still only ). Arnoldus de Villanova is the first to introduce Alcohol by name.

The term “ Acqua Vite” (juice of the vine) became corrupted soon into “ aqua vitæ ” — “ eau de vie” as the Gallicans have it or “ water of life,” as in an apostrophe by Savonarola to alcohol : “ O aqua vitæ , per te jam ætas mihi annos viginti prolongata est.”

Huc reckons this knowledge was carried to China by the Mohammedans about A . D . - 1400 . The Egyp tians of old , erudite in science and skilful in art as they undoubtedly were, appear to have made no ad

vances in this direction beyond the production of fruit-ferments, with the qualifying fact that they had

carried to a high degree of elaboration the production

of factitious beverages through the incorporation of various aromatics and narcotics, such as myrrh , có riander, hellebore, wormwood, and the aloe, consti

tuting out of such a class of stimulants which in

sacred writ are known under the generic appellative of “ Strong Drink ” - vide Ps. lxxv -8 , Isa. V – 22.

23. Chemical Qualities and Adulterations. Crude alcohol is a poison. Dr. Percy made an injection into one of the cervical vessels of a dog, thus arresting respiration and circulation by two minutes. The es sentially toxic element contained is Fusel-oil (methy 23*

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Opium .

lated spirit), a liquid of a clear transparent yellow , acrid to the taste and nauseous to the smell. This ingredient (which all unrectified whiskeys contain ),

so exceedingly tenacious of its hold , is separable in

its distinct form only by the carefully repeated ap pliances of art. The only strong liquor that comes directly from the still, altogether free from the con

tamination, is brandy distilled from wine alone, but

not that procured from the marc. Two drops of this oil are sufficient to infect 100 gallons (Dobbs), and so

virulent is the fluid in its vapory state,that if breathed only it excites nausea and vomiting , and spasms

even to the endangering of life, thus indicating the presence of a poison.* * Note. An analysis of brandies and whiskeys procured in 1869 by specimens from the three leading up -town hotels on Broadway (where the charges range from 25 to 50 cents per glass) revealed the fact as ascertained by Prof. Chandler, Chemist to the Board of Ex

cise, that all were factitious compounds (imitations), and that every single one contained the oil, and in proportion somewhat directly in proportion to price. In the year previous, of 33 samples of drink ing-liquors promiscuously collected by Dr. Draper for analysis, only

4 out of the whole were free from this oil, and in this particular Broadway and the Five- Points were found to stand about on par ground . Indeed it has been proclaimed upon the authorities named ,

that only one sort of alcoholic beverages unsophisticated is to be

found with any certainty in all New York City, and that is Lager Beer. Dr. H . Cox, chemical inspector of liquors for Ohio in 1865, de clares, that of six hundred and more specimens of strong liquors pro

cured by promiscuous selection over 90 per-cent. were found impreg nuted with ingredients essentially deleterious. Some years since the distillers on the Miami undertook with the use of strychnine to get out of every bushel of corn first four gallons ( instead of three, the

normal proportion ), and finally seven gallons for three.

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24. The least of themischiefs perpetrated upon wines domestic or foreign (something altogether unknown in Oriental wine-regions) is the process of fretting-in . This consists in the addition of a percentage ofbrandy

or other strong liquor to “ fortify ” the article (as the term is) for a trans-Atlantic voyage. California wines have an addition of only 5 per -cent. for the purpose - no very considerable proportion. Wines (only in ferior products require such treatment) are thus se

cured against becoming “ pricked,” (touched with acidity, that is ). There is a corrective, however, always in reserve for such deterioration , the acetate of lead.

25. At the London breweries cocculus in largemeas ure takes the place of malt, and there is a compound

sold under the name of “ bittern” (Morris ). Green copperas is used also, and for imparting to porter

the pewter -mug' flavor (Redding ). Nux vomica gives to beer a “ head,” and even in Persia it appears the manufacturers have taken a lesson from Western traders in so far as to use the nux upon their wines (Southgate.) In France the sophistication of liquors has become a special art. Not cocculus and nux

alone, but henbane, belladonna, absinth, cannabis, and the poppy too some, enter as ingredients into

their “ wines of commerce” (Chevallier). For the " anchor-brand” we need hardly be dependent longer on the district of Champagne, seeing we have all the

essential simples at home in Canfield cider, sulphuric acid and kerosene.

Crude corn -whiskey (“ Taos

lightning” as known on the Rio Grande) makes a

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Opium .

trip to Havre, and by the next steamer comes back transmuted into genuine Sazerac and Hennessey brandies. Malaga wine made out of potato -whiskey (the very worst sort of whiskey to be named) is pre

pared expressly for ourmarket cheap as it is abund ant (S . S . Cox). Of the realwine of Oporto (port) an article scarcely procurable for certain with the

gold of Parvaim — there is annually sold in the city

of New York as much, and in London as much twice over, as is yielded altogether by the entire

slopes of the Tagus northward and southward . One process of manipulation (and this may pass ) is , to take the pure wine to the Channel Islands, Jersey and Guernsey, and there to reduce the original by

two-thirds, intermixing other kindred wines ; a more extensive practice is to manufacture port -wine

with elderberry -juice and infusion of logwood em ployed as a basis, in which inferior wines may be incorporated . In the year 1869 there were exported from Laguna de Terminos (Yucatan ) 6172 millions

pounds of logwood in 109 vessels, and of these latter there went to France 44, to Spain 16 , and to England

and the United States together 12 !— and yet these two last -named countries doubtless consume for dye ing-material more logwood than do Spain and Portu

gal together ten times over. As for Madeira — a wine to be had at any porter-house on the asking — that

went with the last generation . No wonder the “ art and mystery " of liquor-sophistication is so remune rating, when in the face of the exciseman French

brandy can be afforded at a price exceeding only

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nominally the whiskey -duty , and sherry wine can be

had as cheap as Jersey cider. To affirm indeed of the various liquors on sale in our marts, be they of

whatever origin , that not one gallon in one hundred is reliably pure, would be simply to utter a truth as

notorious to the “ craft” as if sounded aloud from the house -tops. 26 . Such is the combustible material which in a physical sense “ setteth on fire the course of nature ;” such are the beverages which under specious name

and in gaudy array are set forth to allure the bon vivant of uppertendom into the gilt-corniced restau rant, or the rough-fisted son of Vulcan within the dingy smoke-begrimed walls of the rude groggery where is ever displayed “ The outer signe of Bacchus and his lure,

That at the dore hangeth there day by day Exciting folke to taste of his moisture ;

Whereat they often cannot well say, Nay .”

Verily “ Bacchus plures quam Neptunus submersit.”

27. Percentages. The proportions of alcohol are in brandy 50, in rum and whiskey rather more, in port, madeira, and sherry wines 20 down to 17, in Johannisberger 16 , in Schiraz wine 14. Greek and French wines vary from 12 to 15, Lafitte marks 8.7 ,

Edinburgh and Albany ales go from 9 to 12, cider and porter average 7, Bock of Bavaria is at 4, lager

(5. specimens — Chandler) 4 .86 and of extractive 4.3 , small-beer and weiss, i to 1.4.

28. Cordials are saccharine beverages made by digesting fruits in alcohol; and are marked by wide

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Opium .

gradations of power — from the bland Rosolio so highly esteemed in the seraglio of Abdul Aziz to the flavory Maraschino of Dalmatia and the “ Tears

of the Widow of Malabar.”

The “ spiced Pome

granate” (Cant. viii- 2) appears to have been innoc

uous at least, and there was a “ vinum mellitum ” or honey-wine, and to this the Mishna alludes. Ulysses

(Od. ix ) on visiting the Lotophagi is treated to a wine that renders his companions oblivious of coun

try for the time; but scarcely recovered to themselves again they receive at an entertainment the Pramnian

cup tendered by Circe's hand, which transforms them into beasts.* Balsamic wines have long en joyed high favor, the myrrhated in chief. At this day the people of Syria have a cordial made from a

digestion of pine-cones. Avicenna condemns all such compounds indiscriminately — “ Vinum mixtum velocius inebriat.”

29. There was known to the ancients a cordial of complex composition evidently , which for its stupe factive properties was at times given to malefactors, so rendering their agonies more endurable (vide the Talmud on Prov. xxxi–6 ). That offered the Saviour at the crucifixion was a “ myrrhated wine” (Mark XV – 23) or (as in Matt. xxvii– 34) a “ sour-wine mingled

with gall.” In Deut. xxxii - 32 the “ wine of Sodom and grapes of gall” are used by comparison , and in Jer. ix - 15 and Lam . iii - 19 " gall and wormwood" * “ Quos hominum ex facie dea sæva potentibus herbis Induerat Circe in vultus ac terga ferarum ." - - ÆNEID.

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appear to be synonymous terms. In Amos vi- 12 gall corresponds to hemlock . Pennant speaks of a usage once obtaining in Britain , that of serving a big bowl of ale to the criminal on his way to execu

tion. Within fifty years a similar practice was main tained in Hamburg by theministrations of the “ Blue

Sisters.” 30. Liqueurs are distinguished by some aromatic essential oil held in combination. These are the

“ firebrands, arrows and death , the poison whereof drinketh up the spirit.” Among the most modest in pretension , but not among the least nocuous in use are the “ Anisettes,” of various brand. Of this entire

class, Absinth (“ Absinthe Suisse") is file-leader. This is the inspiriting or rather inflaming liquor to which

the literati of Paris are so slavishly given over, and which is of the very direst of poisons. Magnan testing its powers upon pigs produced tetanic move

ments, and his experiments have been verified by Amory. He had a patient also, who after habitua tion to brandy for two years, on changing to absinth

“ speedily brought epilepsy upon himself and a hasty death .” The “ poculum absinthiatum ” no more than

the comparatively innocuous “ vinum mellitum ” did not escape the notice of that naturalist of the Argus eyes, the elder Pliny.

31. Absinth — a liquor now drunk in Paris by thou sands upon thousands — demands a separate and

special notice. Though made of higher proof than brandy by twenty per -cent. it is recklessly used not withstanding.

So enticing to the novice, so fasci

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Opiuin .

nating to the experienced does it become, that those who have once acquired the taste return to it again

and again , reckless of the immediate influences as they are heedless of the pathologic mischiefs. The senses lose their acuteness, memory is weakened and

the mind confused, there are prickings in the skin and tremblings of the knees, the epithelial lining of the throat and stomach rages as from a fire kindled within , and hallucinations by day and incubus by

night harass the sufferer, until finally , and that by a rapid course,body and mind crumble alike and perish

together. No immediate effects certainly , so grave, so dire, come of the habitual use of opium .

This

liquor has so far attracted the notice of the French government that it has been put on the prohibited list and ruled out of the Navy (McCabe).

CHAPTER XXIII. OPIUM CONTRASTED WITH ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES .

“ Dextrum Scylla latus, lævum implacata Charybdis Cohibet.” — ÆNEID .

“ And falling into a place where two seas met they ran the ship aground.” — ACTS.

1. Opium in the bright-side view has been already presented in chapters vi and xiii ; the more sombre

features appear in chapters vii and viii. 2. Opium and Alcohol as together viewed from different stand-points appear in relations now mu tually approximative, or again in a more direct

antagonism . Alcohol excites an action potent but fugitive ; opium imparts a more sustained endurance.

Both operate primarily as stimulants and ultimately as sedatives ; but here they divide, in that the one

incites a physical innervation proportionate to the mental elation , while the other bridles in the sensual

appetites aswith a check -rein but gives bolder license to the imagination and the emotions. Alcohol trans

forms the man into a brute ; opium disenthrals this same brutalized humanity from its grosser impedi ments and invests it with new habiliments as of a demigod. The slave of the cup becomes impatient of restraint, choleric from ironic taunt, and vindictive

under fancied wrongs; the slave to the opium -pipe, 24

(277 )

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Opium .

now lifted to a serener sky, looks down upon the

materialized pigmies that traverse this low plane of commonplace with a patronizing compassion per haps, or again in indifferent unconcern . Alexander, furious to madness against his friend Clitus from the

incitements of wine, had he lapsed into an opium reverie rather would have assumed the role of the sentimental rhapsodist and not that of the maudlin

debauchee.

Would opium (as brandy did ) have at

once transformed the delicately moulded personator of dramatic character into the half-insane zealot and bold and reckless assassin ? 3. Alcohol, fitful in action , reaches its point of cul mination in a single paroxysm , to subside afterward

into the stupefactive state ; opium exerts a more equilibrated energy that slides off insensibly into

reverie. The bacchanal settles into a stertorous sleep, to come to himself again partly lightened of

his load ; the opium -eater, beguiled into an evanes cent torpor 'rather, is aroused to the painful sense of a frigid skin , a tremulousness over the whole frame,

and a painfully protracted insomnia. 4 . Opium and alcohol as if by a sort of elective

affinity operate upon certain organs somewhat con formably to the principle of selection , although the former, as Dr. Day observes, appears to cover a larger area. Alcohol determines more to the stom ach , the liver, and the kidneys; opium involves the

brain with all the nerve-ramifications. Gin is the mythologic vulture fabled of Tityus that holds per petually in its greedy maw the ever-wasting but

Opium Contrasted with Alcoholic Beverages. 279 ever-exhaustless liver ;* opium is a vampire rather ,

that sucks out from the veins the life- giving stream while fanning the victim into a death - sleep with its wing. Livers disorganized through the excessive

use of alcoholics may grow to most undue propor tions.

There was once in charge of the writer a

German , an inveterate drunkard , whose liver (it was of the hobnail species) measured 534 inches trans

versely and weighed nearly as many pounds. In the case of G . F. Cooke the actor, who off the stage had scarcely one sober hour out of the twenty -four (vide

Dunlap), the organ was found both wasted and in

durated. 5. Profoundly as opium affects the brain it appears

to lead to mania of any form only in exceptional cases ; in alcoholic subjects this in some form is not

uncommon (Joly). The Earl of Shaftesbury, Com missioner of Lunacy for twelve years , affirms that

one-half the cases embraced in Asylum -records are of such origination ; and his declarations are con firmed by the published Reports. Scotland shows a smaller ratio , about twenty per-cent.; England

for 1844 gives thirty per-cent. Esquirol puts the ratio in France for his day at two-thirds of the

total; Prof. Huss of Sweden says one-half for his country . Of 966 lunatics gathered together in St. Petersburg during ten years there were only 129 ex

ceptions. Other symptoms more directly referable to alcohol are pulmonary apoplexy (Devergie ), and epileptic seizures (Devereaux ).

* “ Jecur inconsumtum Tityi semperque renascens.” — Æneid , vi.

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Opium .

6. In the intervals occurring between the parox ysms of the two stimuli a very considerable diversity is to be observed. The appetite for strong liquors may subside and then slumber for months, or until waked up again as when a stray spark has accident

ally dropped into a powder -magazine, thus affording space for an attempted reform ; opium allows no

slumberings, no intervals, no haltings. The inebriate upon alcohol is like one swayed to and fro by a tidal wave that flows and ebbs to flow and ebb again ; the victim to opium is as one borne impetuously along by

a resistless river, which swelling continually with its

convergent streamlets rushes onward in blind fury to overleap every barrier and absorb every object within its tide. The veteran grog-bruiser subsiding and rising again with the oscillating wave may perchance

in a desperate spring, “ Like the strong swimmer in his agony,”

so ride the o'ertopping crest as to plant firm foot on

the solid marge beyond ; the despairing opium -eater sucked in by the resorbent under-tow is forced in ward and adown, as if in the fast clutch of some giant

sea-king, beyond the reach of grapnel to grasp,be yond the sweep of dragnet to encircle . 7 . Temperament. That temperament most obnox ious to the damaging assaults of opium is the ner

vous; alcohol exerts its force more directly upon the sanguino-bilious and its incidental maladies,those of the hepatic or the renal cast. The antidote that should be has become through misuse the bane ;

Opium Contrasted with Alcoholic Beverages.

281

opium is precluded against cerebral derangements, alcoholics have ceased to energize the secernent ap

paratus. 8. The alcohol family lean towards festive associa

tion and to tobacco pre-eminently ; the opium -eater withdrawn to the seclusion of his solitary hauteur regards such fraternization as a mésalliance. There

is a certain lawyer of the Interior (with a stomach about calcined very likely by this time) whose way was to hold up when the gastric irritation had become no longer bearable and to fill the intervals (something he must have) with small packets of morphine (Dr. S.). A “ decayed ” doctor, one of Redwine's folk ,

goes irregularly from whiskey to morphine and then back again , to and fro, but never on the double line. Alternation is the prevailing rule rather, but then the exceptions seem sometimes almost as nume rous. Like Herod and Pilate with all their jealousies

and antipathies, opium and alcohol “ are sometimes (and not a few times either) made friends together." Asmust be allowed,(to use the language of Sheridan ), “ when they do agree their unanimity is wonderful.” There was the Indian rajah seen by Anderson, who regularly after nightfall would smoke himself to stu

pidity, and upon opium or tobacco indifferently ; or (s'il vous plaît, monsieur) not unlikely he would en

tertain both in a common fellowship . This dignitary confessed, however, that his constitution was gradu ally yielding and wasting. Baron de Tott while at the Ottoman court had for interpreter a Persian , a connoisseur as thoroughly indoctrinated in the ar 24 *

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Opium .

cana of stimulation as he was adept in the rhetoric

of linguistic lore. He too was in the habit of getting inebriated upon one or the other stimulus, and some

times and for the occasion making them cohelpers : - All for Turc and Learning's glory

Tippled he nightly , Turco more."

Davidson of New York, once a druggist in a Long Island village, had a regular visitor, who made her purchases for a week in advance ; one quart of lau danum , that is to say, and half a gallon of Cognac

to give the other a due toning. Laudanum , it should

be borne in mind, combines the two stimuli. Mr. B . of the Hospital interchanged with wine and tobacco both , and sometimes had all three a-going. Prof. Pitcher on this point says, “ I could multiply exam ples, all tending to establish the fact that the appetite for alcohol coexists with that for opium , and that in

the case of the sex certainly the second is the pre vailing antecedent of the other.” 9. Prospects of Reform . The ratio of drunkards re

formed upon the basis of total abstinence has been estimated as being one in six upon the total ; the ratio of the reformed from among the devotees to opium (asylum -cases not reckoned in ), were it ascer

tainable in figures,might scarcely count one-sixth of a sixth. Of four drunkards once familiarly known to the writer (all four members that had been of the

" regular army”), two of whom had suffered delirium

tremens, and the other two would have gone through the like fiery trial but for that the purse — " deficiente

Opium Contrasted with Alcoholic Beverages. 283 crumenâ, crescente gulâ ” — was so much less elastic than the stomach , two of the four emancipated

themselves voluntarily, and lived several years after faithful in their course ; the third broke off peremp torily from the time his fit of the delirium was over, nor has he, as I am assured, from that time for six

teen years onward so much as carried a glass of liquor to his lips for once: B ., the fourth in the order

of time, consented to take the pledge at the hands

of a noted priest of his faith, but for a year only ; and so he did a second and a third time, enjoying for a brief season at the end of each year the blissful expe rience of O 'Shanter, when though “ Kings may be great, feyetvict Tam glorious; oriowas us." O 'er all the ills of life victorious.” .

The fourth renewal was without conditions, and he has been “ found faithful.” “ The Scorpion Opium

(observes Dr. Barnes) pierces with a deadlier barb than the Worm of the Still.” The slave to opium in his resolve is powerless.

To him

“ Hope never comes (that comes to all), But cloud instead, and ever-during dark Surround him .”

10 . Testimonies. In the instruments of excess there may be reasonable preferences ; for instance as between gluttony and surfeiting upon the appetizing

" baked meats” from the larder and sustained inebria tion upon wines and punches. To bring the com parison to a test-point, by how much more, I pray

you, were to be deprecated and rebuked the oino

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Opium .

mania of a Silenus than the boulimia of a Cacus, the sottishness of a King Cole or the swinishness of a

King Magas ? II. Suppose in a particular case the appetite for

spirituous drinks insatiable and ineradicable there fore, how stands the comparison with the craving of the opium -slave ? Let us hear from them who

“ speak that they do know and testify that they have seen .” Thus Ho-King -Shan : “ For the wasting of time and dissipation of means and the moral deprava tion of the man besides, the opium -pipe is without its rival.” In a memorial addressed to the emperor thus

speaks another Chinese scholar : “ It is not theman that eats opium , but opium that eats the man. The poison invades the inmost vitals, the opium -eater is become an opium -devil.” Correspondent is the esti mate by Sir C . Forbes : " For fascinating seductive ness , immeasurable agony and appalling ruin , the

world has yet to see its parallel.” “ Not the reptile with its fascinating eye draws the impotently flutter

ing bird so surely within its gaping jaws. Opium is a spirit of evil, as treacherously beguiling as is the arch -fiend himself” (Barnes). 12. What observation has noted let experience con

firm , in a personal narrative taken from the “ Probe" of July, 1869. “ I am now past the meridian of life, after a various and successful prosecution of busi

ness -pursuits. Feeling the need of some stimulant under the pressure of multiform engagements I took to whiskey ; the effects of which beverage though the

taste was not enjoyable were both exhilarating and

Opium Contrasted with Alcoholic Beverages. 285

soothing. In the popular sense I was sometimes drunk ; but the will was yet strong, and upon a de liberate judgment and with a sense of public duty in view I was enabled to comeback to sobriety. Weari some excitements, however, incident to the earnest pursuit of wealth reproduced the same need of a

stimulus and with increased intensity. What should I do ? I said to myself, ' I cannot return to my busi ness and I will not return to my cups ; I must have some anodyne, not to bring sleep so much as to

soothe my agitated nerves.' Laudanum was found on trial to answer the purpose. The drunkenness had been periodic , and in the intervals between the attacks my head was as clear, my hands were as steady, and my physical stamina and power of en

durance as firm as ever. * * *

I sincerely regret

the loss of two months out of each of the many years while I was a whiskey -drunkard ; but on comparing those years with the later ones of my life, I have to lament that I am now enslaved , not

two months out of the twelve merely but every hour

of every month throughout the entire year. Not for one minute indeed I may say, am I free from the

direful influence. Now I am falling from a precipice , now I am drowning in a stream , or again I am being beaten or sawn asunder. These torments are beyond the reach of my will ; my judgment would remon

strate but it is silenced ; indeed my whole moral nature has suffered a paralysis.” How like unto the venturesome voyager warped within the verge of a

Opium.

286

maelstrom - round he goes and down he goes, strive as he may : “ Incidit in Scyllam , cupiens vitare Charybdin .” 13. As between the two classes of stimuli here under

review and in reference to the respective sexes, sup pose (what is conditionally supposable only ) that one

or else the other stimulantmust be endured, or sup

pose (what is quite supposable) that one or the other will be had and used, which shall we appropriate to which , as a pis-aller and with regard to adaptation and consequences ? Inebriation ' upon alcoholics being of the intermittent type occasions certainly

less frequent perturbations of the faculties and less considerable disarrangements of business, and opium in private use is as surely less revolting in appear ance, less debasing by example ; therefore leave the

bottle with the man rather, and for the woman let

her rove in her New -found-land of dreams and rev eries and hallucinations and fantasies.

CHAPTER

X XIV .

THE ALTERNATIVE - THE VINE OR THE POPPY — WHICH ? “ Hoc sustinete, majus ne veniat, malum .” — PHÆDRUS.

“ Il vaut mieux d’employer notre esprit à supporter les infortunes qui nous arrivent qu'à prévoir celles qui nous peuvent arriver.” — ROCHEFOUCAULD .

1. Is opium encroaching upon the domain of alco

hol ? Is there a reciprocal antagonism subsisting between the two, through the force of which one declines and recedes as the other advances ? Is wine an evil per se , or a good, and a boon to the race ? Such inquiries, involving as they do the entire social istic economies, will not find their solutions in any

mere balances as settled between profit and loss; they have a moral aswell as a material side. Physi

ological deductions upon ascertained facts (the “ ar gumentum ad rem ”), not invective and diatribe ex ploding out of a crammed exchequer of words (the

“ argumentum ad personam ” ) it is, which must draw “ Truth, that gem that loves the deep,”

from out its lurking-places. Exaggerative rhetoric

can never disturb the quiet but invincible logic of facts and figures. 2. The increasing encroachments of opium upon the advance of population have been set forth in ( 287)

288

Opium .

chapters ii and iii; certain confirmatory accounts of more specific indication are here to be presented . 3 . In China Yia -tsin or samshu is as abundant and free as is wine in France ; nevertheless it is notmuch affected by the women , nor indeed by themen either

to an extravagant extent, being manufactured as well for supplying the Fan -Kwai (foreign devils) in the cities as for domestic use . Chinese John it is to be recollected loves opium as he loves nothing else

(G . W . Cooke, 1858).

4 . In reference to Turkey and the adjacent lands we have the authority of Chevallier, whose testimony

is that the use of opium has within a recent period obviously declined , and that wine has been as pal pably on the increase. Similar impressions were

derived by Hobhouse when he visited theMorea and the neighborhood half a century ago .

The Persians

have a saying “ De deux poisons à l'âme

Sont le vin et une belle femme;"

but for all Schiraz has carried the day over Mecca, for there has never been the period in Oriental his

tory when wine was unused. In the halcyon days of Haroun, though the drinking of inebriating liquors was rated by the Mohammedan doctors among the “ cases of conscience,” the proffer of the golden se

quins nevertheless would ever secure an open -sesamé

to the wine-cellar.

Thus Noureddin of Balsora ,

having wandered away one day into the palace-gar dens of King Zinebi, after appealing to the overseer

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy — Which ? 289 Sheik Ibrahim for some good liquor as a fit supple ment to the evening repast, is answered in these terms: “ Heaven defend me from keeping wine in my house to sell and from ever entering the place

where any is to be sold — a man like me who have made a pilgrimage to Mecca four times— forme to

drink wine !" These saintly scruples suddenly melted away, however, the eyes of his understanding having become opened at sight of the glittering coins as they were forthcoming from the pocket. That in the period of the Caliphate no inflexible rule of prohibi

tion obtained, is further apparent from the observa tions of Prince Zeyn Alasman when a guest at a grand entertainment given at Cairo by the munificent

Morabec. Schah Abbas the Second (so unlike Ab bas the Great) was an inveterate toper, and Selim II., another standard -bearer of the Prophet, not only drank wine to excess himself but allowed everybody else who could pay his way to do in like manner.

Certain it is that opium though familiar to Persian and Turk for centuries has not made any such strides as China evidences.

5. The records of Teetotalism have their signifi cance.

Themovement in England had its inception

in 1836, upon a basis of three hundred thousand names ; by four years from this the impartations of opium for home-use exclusively had advanced from

16 ,500 pounds (the average for the fifteen years pre vious) to 30,000 pounds, and in one year more (1840 ) to 40,000 pounds — a ratio of 2. 4 to 1. Dr. Taylor

while making his official tour of inquiry in the east 25

290

Opium .

ern counties of England was informed by intelligent and observant druggists wherever he went, that

among the factory -operatives the laudanum -vial from

the apothecary 's was fast superseding the bottle of the gin -shops.

Dr. Rhind and other physicians

give correspondent testimony in reference to the cities and towns, and they are supported by declara tions to the same effect made by the parochial clergy generally . 6 . In the States teetotalism became a fixed fact with the advent of the Baltimore crusaders in 1840 ,

having at the start a roll of a hundred and fifty thou

sand pledges answering to so many confirmed drunk ards (Rev. Dr. Marsh). In 1849 appeared upon the stage that very efficient coadjutor of these apostles

the second Hermit Peter, Father Mathew . Our im portations of opium swelled between 1840 and 1850 in the ratio of 3.5 to 1, and when prices had become enhanced by fifty per-cent. In our West opium is getting into increased use, says Dr. Pitcher, though the time has notyet come for the superseding of alco

holics. In the Eastern States it is scarcely extrava gant to affirm ,that not a physician with opportunities

for judging, not a druggist can be found, but will tell you that the demand for opium is growing exten sively and alarmingly, now that liquors are so fiercely

decried. Put these beverages under penal outlawry or consign those who tolerate them to a social ostra

cism , some enemy more subtle but none the less vir ulentmay perchance creep by stealth into their place. Break down the conduits through which vinous spirits

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy — Which ? 291

flow , and some spirit of other guise — Thebaic spirit peradventure - may rush in to occupy the waste places. The causes thus determining are environed by no mystery. First is the disposition to secret indul gence, which ever recalcitrates against an officious supervisory intermeddling ; then again facility in traf

fic is vastly enhanced when bulk is in large dispro

portion to value.* 7 . In view of antecedent facts as specified, an in

quiry by way of comparison into the uses and the abuses of alcoholic liquors of various namebecomes in the hygeienic aspect an elemental question emi nently demanding further elucidation . To begin at the beginning — with Pindar we may say, Apestov pey üdwp, “ water is the best :" a sentiment

thus echoed from the School of Salernum : " Amo quæ gelidum dat mihi lympha merum .”

Of the same tenor is a dictum of the learned Hoff * Note. A newly adopted stimulating beverage, Ether, appears to be gaining ground in certain localities, particularly in the North ofIre land with Belfast as a centre (Draper). Among the teetotalers of the

Roman Catholic population mainly it is that this article has got into favor, and the more as it answers very well as a substitute. Ether not having that strong affinity for water which alcohol indicates does ' not seize upon the tissues with an equal tenacity of hold, nor work therefore the same morbid changes. Furthermore, the impression made is feebler not only but more fugitive also. The ordinary amount used is one- fourth to one-half a wineglass for the time, re

peatedly renewed as the impression declines. Among the ladies of the favored classes in Boston (Dr. Storer) ether and chloroform both are gaining relatively over opiated mixtures and alcoholic draughts as well.

Opium .

292

mann : “ Water is the beverage which by its univer sality of adaptation is the most suited to all the tem

peraments.”

Says Queen Boadicea addressing the

Roman invader, “ Our wine is that drawn from the running brook.”

As an alimentary material and a diluent indispen sable under all physiological conditions water holds the pre-eminence ; as a vicarious food -substance and as a roborant under debility wine has not its rival. Let us discriminate.

8 . Wine is indicated for a present exigency rather ; water confers a more equably sustaining power. Sir Francis Head going among the peons of Bolivia and living upon their fare, roast-beef and water and no thing else ,though scarcely able on his arrival among them to rest in the saddle, could nevertheless, after an

open-air invigoration of three months, sit bolt up right and ride at a gallop alongside the best of them . At the Woolwich rolling -mills, where sustained ap plication to heavy work is demanded, the water drinkers as was shown upon a trial held out the

longest. 9. This superior energy which water imparts for the

maintaining of a prolonged endurance is illustrated . further in the discipline of athletes. Youths training for the Isthmian games restricted themselves in the

main to a diet of figs,with water only for their drink. The pugilists of our own times have depended upon beef rather than upon brandy or ale. Heenan , a man of brawn, is a reputed teetotaler ; Sayers repre

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy — Which ? 293 sented the secret of his strength as residing in “ beef steak , water, and the dumb-bells.” The only dietetic

difference between the Oxonians and the Harvardians preparatory to their recent contest consisted in a slight ration of ale allowed the English champions (Lancet).*

10 . Campaign -life and its vicissitudes abound in instruction . A rule of the service in Russia forbids the issuing of the customary spirit-ration on the eve

ning precedent to an expected march. Sale's brigade while marching and counter-marching in Afghanis tan , exposed as they were to severe privations as

well as dangers, continued remarkably exempt from disease, going without other drink than water alone. Distinguished soldiers not a few have given their personal warranty of the value of cold water - Elliot,

Havelock , and Napier in the jungles of the Hoogly , Jackson and Stuart in the morasses of the Chicka hominy.

II. Extremes of latitude have their requirements. “ The same draught (says Anstie ) that would scarcely ruffle the sluggish blood -current of a Norwegian

would kindle up a fever of madness in the hot brain of a Peguan ." The Bedouins as they roam over the scorching sands of their deserts drink nothing from early morn to nightfall but water merely . Sir John * Note. The advantage of such antecedent preparation has not escaped the attention of the observant Horace :

“ Qui studet optatam contingere metam , Abstinuit venere et vino."

25 *

294

Opium .

Malcolm in conducting an English force from India across the Sahara for co-operating as auxiliaries against the “ army of Egypt,” though marching under a burning sun and breathing some days an air twelve degrees above blood-heat, encountered but

little disease nevertheless. Similar was the experi ence of Desgenettes with his troops before Acre ;

but few of those supplied with strong liquors during their sickness recovered . The precept of Buddha (habitually violated by the priests, says Heber) was a hygeienic ordinance just as was the precept of Mo hammed , having an especial conformity to climate.

12. Alcohol, it thus appears , does not temper ex tremeheat, neither again does it resist intense cold .

An Esquimaux youth in Parry 's presence after a huge meal on beef and tallow - candles drank off

a pint of brandy without a wink ; his fat form nevertheless but for his train -oil would soon have dwindled to a skeleton . Dr. Aikin observes, that in

Arctic climes there is greater endurance upon water

than upon stronger liquors ; and he is sustained by Franklin , Scoresby, Kane, and others concurrently .

Dr. Hooker of the Ross expedition expresses a somewhat equivocal opinion , having in his own ex perience found brandy neither helpfulnor harmful. 13 . Through every clime and by every people , in the sweet- scented groves of the Cydnus or along the

Nile -valley among the palms, in the quiet vale of Cashmere as upon the resounding banks of the

arrowy Rhone, wine has ever carried cheer to the workshop of the artisan and the home of the toiling

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy_ Which ? 295 husbandman, while it has afforded to the sons of song a theme of perpetual inspiration . “ The roses have come ( saith Hafiz), but they cannot afford us

the pleasure that the goblet of wine doth bring. Give me wine, so shall I forget care and trouble.” In the Canticles (i- 2) wine is named as the worthiest

theme to be set in comparison with love. The Son of Sirach associates wine with music : “ As the sig net of an emerald set in gold , such is the melody of music with pleasant wine.” Bacchus, “ the dispenser

of joys and of sorrows” to mankind (as old Hesiod hath it ), is thus lauded in a line of Tibullus : “ Bacchus et afflictis requiem mortalibus affert,”

a sentiment accordant with the Ceian muse : “ Vinum dii optimi fecere remedium ad curas dissipandas." “ Wine (Plato ) is a medicine, through the succor of

which we throw off care and the weight of years to revive our youth again .” Doctor Hippocrates him self, the gravest of the grave, is fain to extol “ a cheerful glass” had betimes ; and even the stern

visaged Cato , “ Indifferent in his choice to sleep or die , Who knew not how to wink at human frailty ,"

rigid Stoic as he was, could at times unbend under themellowing glow imparted by the amphoric juice.* Abou Hassan in his colloquy with the Caliph thus

indicates his sense of the eternal fitness of things : * “ Narratur et prisci Catonis Sæpe mero caluisse virtus.” - HORACE.

296

Opium .

“ Let people that hate wine go on in their dull, stupid , senseless course ; but for us who know better let us enjoy ourselves as wemay. There is a pleas ure in the brimming cup, which communicates itself to them that partake,most assuredly.”

14 . Let us not mistake, however, in supposing that the eulogists have always held a sway undisputed.

The Rabbins (Lightfoot) would have it the vine was the primal source of moral evil in the world ,holding that “ The fruit

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world and all our woe,"

was the fruit of this same vine-tree, the grape and nothing else. The physiological action attributed to the experimental trial made by the hitherto happy

pair is thus echoed by Milton : “ Jocund and boon As with new wine intoxicate, they swim

In wantonness ofmirth , in lust they burn .”

So Usbek in his epistolary conferences with his friend Rhédi expresses the same cardinal idea : " Lorsque je pense aux funestes effets de ce liqueur (le vin ), je ne puis m 'empêcher de le regarder comme le présent le plus redoutable et, funeste aux hommes pito

yables.” To all this the poets (and the philosophers as well) have entered their demurrer. Hear the learned Boethius : “ Vinum modice sumptum acumen intel lectui conferre videtur” — a sentiment certifying to

another that Chæremes had uttered long before : “ Vinum sapientiam , bona consilia, bibentibus affert."

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy — Which ? 297 The poets all confess to the inspiring glow , Alcæus and Æschylus, Sophocles and Euripides and Aristo phanes those famed explorers of the Grecian lyre,

the Sulmonean elegist and the Mantuan bard; and in Miltonian verse the “ spicy nut-brown ale” too is memorized. The true doctrine appears to have been long since apprehended by Panyasis : “ Wine is a

useful servantbut a cruel master.” 15. The conditionally alimentive force inherent in wine is well ascertained . Said Androcydes on his visit to Alexander , “ Remember, great king, that when thou drinkest wine thou drinkest the blood of

the earth .” Of similar import is a Cingalese saying : “ Wine is as natural to the man as ismilk to children.”

The Pylian king (who outlasted three ages or gener ations) lived upon wine — so say those veracious

chroniclers the bards of the heroic age. Themeta phorical description of wine as “ the milk of old age" *

is no mere figure of rhetoric, for Livia Augusta ,sister of the emperor, attained the ripe age of eighty -four, drinking nothing but the Pucinum . Cornaro, a Ve netian nobleman born in 1466 , who lived into his ninety -eighth year, having with difficulty come out

of a sickness which habits of intemperance had early brought on , undertook the experiment of reducing

his gross corpulence by pursuing an extreme abste

miousness,and succeeded, living almost half a century after. The daily allowance to which he kept himself * Note. With this idea accords a dictum of the Salernian School: “ Vinum subtile facit in sene cor juvenile.”

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Opium .

was 12 ounces of bread with 14 ounces of wine (the

light wines and particularly of a fresh vintage he found better suiting to his constitution ), and if he varied by any excess he was sure to suffer illness.

There was besides Old Parr (so called), whose daily drink was sour ale ; he outlasted five generations.

16 . Saith Pliny, “ Duo sunt liquores corpori hu mano gratissimi, intus vini, foris olei.” The same writer specifies two hundred and seventy -eight uses

which the vine and its fruit may be made to subserve. Objections urged have been that wine is a non nitrogenous substance, and again that it coagulates the pepsine of the stomach . Similar strictures apply to starchy foods and to milk , the first being devoid of

the element nitrogen,the second coagulating as soon as it meets the gastric fluid . Wine acts too as a con

diment, promoting the salival flow , and in so far aiding digestion , and therefore it was the practice obtained in Egypt of taking wine as an appetizer and stomachic precedent to the feast (Lane). 17. Let us hear some modern testimony. Prof. Agassiz on appearing before a Committee of the

Massachusetts Legislature in 1867, thus speaks of Bavaria . “ The Bavarian peasantry live upon bread

and beer without other addition , a little meat only excepted - a diet on which they thrive vigorously . So in Switzerland wines are the common beverage

freely drunk everywhere, and furthermore are dis

tributed in alms at the clergyman's door as liberally and as much of course as is meat itself.” A mug of ale for the burly Englishman's lunch is as regularly

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy — Which ? 299 provided , as is the bread and cheese or the sandwich to which it is an accompaniment. The peasant of Saxony, the strolling buffo of Catalonia , is equally jubilant and satisfied over his “ cake and ale ” or his

claret and coarse crust, as is the Castilian don with the mild Amontillado or the Austrian count over Johannisberger.

18. Saith the Preacher in a certain place, “God hath made everything beautiful in his time” — a sentiment finding response from the Ceian muse also .* Against

the debility and nervousness following upon lingering disease it is, that wine is wont to put forth its re

energizing power. In respect of the adaptation of wine to maladies of an asthenic type, the members of the Faculty however divided upon collateral ques tions are here, nine out of ten of them , substantially agreed. Wines as that of Pontus which Apollodorus

physician to one of the Ptolemies commends, the subacid Catalan a favorite in Havana as noted by

Dr. Gibbes, Tokay and other Hungarian products which Dr. Thompson so exalts in view of their non constipative as well as their tonic properties — such are among the true depuratives and resurrective suc courers.

19. A case in illustration of the double action of wine in its alimentive and roborative powers together

is reported by Bricheteau. A boy of about twelve years, now reduced to a condition of the extremest

emaciation and debility with extensive epithelial ul * “ Nullum deorum donum est abjiciendum .”

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Opium .

ceration in the fauces co -existing, all the sequelæ of

diphtheria, had become so averse to food of every

sort that nutriment in whatever shape was repelled with utter disgust and absolutely refused altogether. A final trial was made with wine. This was taken with a real relish ,and to such advantage that life was sustained upon it through an entire month. The

amount used for the day was a pint and a half, with the addition of two ounces of brandy and a little

sugar intermingled. 20. The Sacred Recordsmake allusion to the wine bath (Gen. xlix - 11), a mighty restorative if a luxu

rious and expensive one ; also to a combination of

wine with oil for alexipharmic uses, e.g . as in the practice of that “ certain Samaritan ” upon the way farer who in journeying towards Jericho had fallen

among “ thieves ” - highwaymen as they were, the Macheaths and the Turpins of that day (Luke x -34). 21. The utilities of distilled liquors if more limited

are not in their appropriate places and relations of

inferior power and value. Professors Horsford, Clark, and Jackson assert, that alcohol supplies respiratory material, and besides like coffee and some other agents retards disintegration of tissue and the meta

morphosis which is perpetually progressing in the organism . The teaspoonful of rum with the chip of biscuit which Captain Bligh served out every morn ing to his men in their open boat, answered both as a present stimulus and as a more enduring preserva

tive against tissue-waste , and so was anxiously waited for by them and received with eagerness and satis

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy — Which ? 301 faction. When the Famine was prevailing in Ireland, it was observed that the peasantry would often spend the pittance of wages they had earned upon whiskey

in place of the bread -loaf. But alcohol in any form can never supersede food proper, even temporarily . Hotel- living “ on the European plan ” doubtless favors

continence and abstemiousness in the use of food even to an excess often , but then again it encourages

more frequent ingurgitations of alcoholic drinks and the chewing of tobacco more freely, to meet in a

manner the sense of vacuity so proneto recur. Great

drinkers indeed there may be who are great eaters as well ; but in the general the quantities of food used as compared with the amounts of strong liquors con sumed are very much in a reciprocal ratio the one to the other.

22. Instances do indeed occur — and all classes of cases appear to abound with unexplained anomalies

— showing that life may be sustained upon strong liquors mainly for periods of years. Dr. Anstie (an

authority never to be called in question ) gives in tab ulated form notes of twelve stout drinkers whose habits he was well certified of, persons who had lived upon an alcoholic diet (as it might be termed) years

and years again . One was a pensioner, another a

taverner, a third a coachman, and two on the list were women . The average age was 42, the medium period 25 years, and the quantity of raw spirits con sumed for the day one pint and a fraction over. The first -named, a retired soldier, 83 years old, had sub

sisted nigh upon the twentieth year on a bottle of gin 26

302

Opium .

daily with nothing besides save a fragment of bread

no bigger than one's finger, and a little tobacco. All this time (until now ) no sickness of any kind had ever come to him . Of the two women one had been

a consumer of gin for about thirty years, until she

had got to a pint for the day. She took no tea, nor any solid food other than a little biscuit. Of the whole enumerated three only had suffered morbid symptoms of any description though several had

been annoyed with a gastric erethism , nor had any one of them ever shown indications of approaching

delirium tremens. Such were but specimens out of many more that a prudent delicacy forbade thepublic mention of.

23. The presence of debilitating malarious effluvia may render the demand for brandy or some repre

sentative of it imperative and indispensable. In that

aguish plague-spot of Europe, Walcheren , while the troops under York were one season idly campaign

ing there,such of them as used tobacco and schnapps escaped for the most part the prevailing fever, and they only. In the India service ale has oftener been found a better hygeienic . After Col. Sykes had

gone to Madras with a regiment made up of a new levy , before the first month of service had elapsed there had been reported forty cases of delirium tre

mens, the fruit of a liberal supply of rum , of course. By a short time after the substitution of ale the mor tality had fallen from 30 in the thousand to 11. Dr. Mosely of an earlier period bears testimony to the

superiority of ales.

The Alternative , the Vine or the Poppy — Which ? 303 24. Against pure debility as under the typhoid forms of disease alcoholic liquors are indispensable ; no sufficient substitute having been found for them . Rum -punch made with milk , as Dr. Letheby of Lon

don supported by Dr. Moreau of Liverpool asserts, is a tonic, provided some tonic for such exigencies is demanded, that stands unrivalled. In evidence that alcoholic stimuli if cautiously used as indicated in disease do not overcharge the system with unresolv

able and unappropriable material is this, that no im moderate vascular excitation is awakened, no morbid cerebral action is aroused, no immoderate strain upon

the secernents is imposed, no adynamic reaction fol lows as a sequela .

25. A given stimulant (“ modice sumptum " as Plato would have wine used) may be very innocent in the moderate use and yet baleful in excess ; for between exhilaration and inebriation there is something more

than a step . Cabanis discourages the habitual use of wine ; the Grecian sage would defer the same to the eighteenth year at the shortest. Extravagance of use and impunity against consequences never go hand in hand . The Romans after the investing of

Syracuse and a protracted siege were compelled to await the anniversary of the feast of Bacchus ere making the final assault. So the sturdy soldiers in Hannibal's army of the Alps, who had surmounted the unexplored and arduous heights and made their

descent upon fair Italy with no other stimulus than sour-wine for drink, became altogether enervated and demoralized upon the luscious wines of Capua, no

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Opium .

longer retaining thatmartial invincibility which should enable them to cope with the trained legions of Scipio on the field of Zama. While Harold and his Saxon

boors were revelling the night through over the “ jolly wassail-bowl” as they crowned in their trenched camp

the hill that overlooks Hastings, the Norman host were quietly reposing in bivouac upon the plain . So Cromwell and his invincibles five hundred years afterward preluded their “ crowning mercy” the vic

tory at Naseby with “ prayer and exhortation” the evening just before. 26. Upon excess follows a recoil, unless elimina

tion is commensurably active in throwing off the foreign element and obviating cumulation. The say

ing current in Persia — “ Sin in a flagon , sin in a glass” — like many apophthegmatic propositions in volves a fallacy . Est modus in rebus. “ It is one thing

(observes Dr. Lewes) to partake largely of a concen trated stimulus and quite another to use the same dilute and in moderation.” Suppose a gourmand gorges upon green turtle or a “ red lobster boiled”

and so gets an attack of cholera -morbus for his rash ness, is turtle -soup or lobster-stew therefore followed by intestinal cramps and vomiting certainly and of

tourse ? Strychnine in a two-grain dose would very speedily bring on tetanic throes and death ,whereas the one-hundredth of a grain might by itself act as an intestinal persuader or a nerve-invigorator. So arsenic in granules imparts tonicity to the general

system ; grains of the same would kill. 27. The controversies upon the physiological action

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy- Which ? .305 of alcohol following imbibition have for the most part turned upon the queries regarding transmutation

and elimination . Thudichum reckons that scarcely one per-cent. of the alcohol is excreted as such ;

Letheby and others hold that the bulk of it undergoes decomposition or disintegration in some form . That alcohol swallowed in great excess should be recog

nizable afterward in some one of the fluids secretory

or excretory needs not be deemed incredible. In 1821 there was taken to Westminster Hospital a woman who had drunk a quart of gin and who died three hours after reception. Extravasated into the ven tricles of her brain were four ounces of a fluid , which

in the opinion of the three physicians present had all the physical properties of alcohol. Magendie claims

to have extracted alcohol from human blood, Behier contends that the blood becomes oxygenized from

the presence of this same element, and Percy after

some experiments inferred that alcohol shows a marked affinity for the cerebral tissue over every : other.*

28. ' So long as a just equilibrium is maintained be tween the secernent and the excretory functions of the system , so long is morbid accumulation averted . and physical harm anticipated . Hermann of Berlin

injected into a rabbit's stomach a minute fraction of woorara (curare) without result; the same experi ment repeated after occlusion by ligature of the se

* Vide N . Y. Journal of Psychological Medicine, vol. iii.,no.2, art 4 - DR. ROGERS

26 *

306

Opium .

cernent tubules leading to the kidneys was followed by death . Brown -Séquard has ascertained that a given quantity of alcohol which under the stimulus from a heated atmosphere would pass off by an in

sensible declension , would yet induce in the same animal provided it were exposed to a very low tem perature a fatal congestion . The stalwart scythe swinger moving lustily under a July sun may drink

his half-pint of grog and sweat it off again by the time his work is half through ; the Chinook of the Oregon getting stupidly drunk on half the quantity

will lie out in a January frost and die before a return ing sun can limber again his stiffened body. 29. So strong is the affinity between alcohol and the various animal tissues, that elimination from the

system is obstructed of course provided the alcohol is held in loose combination merely . The spirit of wine as blended in the processes of nature's labora tory is not readily detected in the separate forin un less after an exaltation of temperature above that of the stomach by several degrees ; the same propor

tion held in artificial admixture as by some manipu lative process of the chemist is readily separable

from its aqueous solvents. It is an admitted fact, recognized tooby such physiologists as Carpenter,that

a gill ofwhiskey of high proof will produce an inebri ative action much exceeding a whole bottle of port wine in which is combined four times perhaps the

amount of alcohol. A very intelligent German of N . Y ., Mr. U ., a person from his business-affinities

familiar with whatever pertains to the practical chem

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy — Which ? 307 istry of alcohol, upon being asked by the writer how much lager-beer he had ever known to be drunk by one man on any particular day, replied by re lating an exploit of his own. Being on a picnic one time in the sultry season of midsummer , he drank in

the course of ten hours 50 glasses of lager, all told ; .but (what was most remarkable ) without undergoing any excitement that approached inebriation . Three glasses of whiskey (he observed) if swallowed within that time would have upset him . The quantity of

alcohol taken for the time as estimated separately was nearly 372 gills ; in a ratio to that contained in so much whiskey as named of above three to one.

The drinks it is to be noted were distributed over the entire day — what made a great difference.

30 . The Alembic is reckoned by Burke to have

been a great blessing to mankind ; but in truth to the still must be ascribed most of the drunkenness

that has afflicted the nations. Camden (1581) says of the English, that though addicted to ale for cen turies earlier they knew nothing of drunkenness pre viously to the wars in the Low Countries, when they

made acquaintance with Dutch schnapps. Where then rests the responsibility ; upon wine or upon those stronger liquors whose representative is brandy?

31. In Great Britain , as ascertained by a calcula tion made a few years since, there were consumed

within the realm 30 gallons of the stronger liquors for every one of wine. According to a return of the actuary in the Registrar-General's office there is one drunkard in England to every 74 persons. Scotland

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Opium .

as compared with England consumes twice as much whiskey in proportion to numbers and as compared

with Ireland three times as much, and there is more drunkenness in Scotland than in either of the other

divisions.

Dr. Story has estimated of our own

States that there are 472 millions of free drinkers , of whom 200 ,000 are sots ; for the female side he gives .

as corresponding figures 100 ,000 and 15 ,000 . Both

Great Britain and the United States manufacture whiskey in almost unlimited quantities. France is a

heavy manufacturer of factițious brandies and wines but mainly for foreign markets, and wherever these

go excess follows upon them . Of the brandy there

produced all to within 4,000,000 gallons is shipped to foreign ports, a part of the same going for wine mixture. Some recent strictures of Dr. Holland in reference to Switzerland are made, as viewed through

other eyes, to wear a somewhat different interpreta

tion. An allusion to Berne as found in a recent book of travels* explains how certain changes upon the old ways have come over the habits of the Swit zers . “ Where schnapps abound and absinth is largely manufactured the common people will drink

themselves stupid on such , and smoke themselves to

a copper-color on tobacco, and then go to sauer kraut like the Sybarites of old to recover upon.” Some of the mischiefs arising from an exclusive ad

diction to liquors of a highly intoxicating power to the exclusion of wines, are indicated in such facts as * The Old World in a New Face ; by H . W . Bellows, D .D ., N . Y ., 1869.

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy - Which ? 309 the following. Dr. Carpenter was informed by a gentleman of Tobago (where rum is a chief article of production) that drunkenness prevails on the Island to an alarming extent, and that the mortality from this cause is as I to 3 of the total. Dr. Guy of London concludes, that one-third of the deaths annually occurring in England are ascribable to the

free and immoderate use of those kindred beverages , brandy and whiskey.* 32. Pass we now within those lines of latitude that

mark the limits of the vine, as Attica, Catalonia , the region threaded by the Po, Bavaria and the Rhine

district ; everywhere sobriety is observed to be the rule and inebriety the rare exception . Of the Greeks,

says B. Taylor (though indeed this tourist is prone to look at things not a little couleur de rose),“ They as a people,men ,women and children , one and all drink

wine; and yet, as I have ever found them , they are among the most temperate of Europeans.” Pococke on visiting Samos though a good while since made observations somewhat discrepant from these . 33. Further testimony of similar import is furnished by E . H . Derby, who made a tour through portions

of the Continent in 1843, and again in a subsequent year. “ Throughout France claret is used as so much * Note. A wonder to Europeans it is that so little drunkenness is

seen in China, in view of the universal custom obtaining at the din ner-table for every one to take a small draught of samshu as a wind

up. Nevertheless a drunkard here is but rarely seen or known of. This testimony of the Rev. Dr. Speer coincides with the observa tion of the Rev. Mr. Nevius, a missionary in that country for ten years.

Opium .

310 water.

You may see at any restaurant an entire

family , the youngest seated beside the eldest,making a breakfast on bread and butter, with claret in place of coffee for their drink . Sauterne and Chambertin

appear to consist with health on the borders of the Loire as do tea and coffee on the banks of the Mer rimạc.

I certainly saw in the course of a month

after my return homemore intoxication and excess than I had seen altogether during my six months' absence. So in Florence as in Paris, on the Arno as on the Seine , the bottle of claret is set beside your plate at table as regularly as is the bread -roll.” Of Paris McCabe says, that one time after a special

search extending over five days he fell in with only so many drunkards.

34 . The people of the Rhine-border are not given to excess, says Rumazzini, and similar affirmations are

made concerning Germany at large. “ Here (says Dr. B . F . Thompson) the exclusive use of beer is accounted a mark of gentility , and distilled liquors

though used in ever so much moderation are held to be vulgar and of immoral tendency, disqualifying for

decent society all such as have been so addicted however they may stand in their official reputation.” 35. Concerning Bavaria thus speaks Dr. Bellows. “ Attheir evening gatherings whole families spend two

days in the week over their wine and beer, sitting in the open air for two to five hours and enjoying their pleasant chitchat with orchestral music besides, the first people intermingling and the religious as well, all (the men , that is) drinking their beer a litre at a

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy - - Which ? 311

sitting and perhaps twice or thrice that. So it was

all the way from Nuremberg to Munich . So rare is drunkenness in the vine-growing districts that only wilful blindness or interested partisanship can venture

a denial. I do not recollect to have seen since leav ing Paris (for theGerman States) but one tipsy person , and this after diligently seeking out places where such might be expected to be found . The truth is, wine is one of the most healthful as well as one of the

most beautiful among the gifts of the Divine Provi dence,and those who possess it are just as little prone

to excess in the using as in the using of corn and oil. Excess there may be indeed everyway and everywhere, for all of Heaven's gifts are liable to abuse.” In the neighborhood of Frankfort farther on and away from the vine-boundaries Dr. B . observed field -laborers

whose daily allowance was a half-litre of potato whiskey (worth about one franc) — and on such some

would get drunk. 36 . An additional evidence of the general prevalence

in the French provinces of temperance upon liquors is this fact, that the sort of wine to which the people

at large are especially partial is a red wine of low

percentage,made from the entire grape after bruising or treading, a wine answering very precisely to what

is met with at the present day about Mount Libanus. Such wine neither creates a factitious appetite for inebriating liquors, nor does it satisfy such appetite when this has been once created. Similar in mildness are the wines abounding in Spain . Señor Cabrera

has lately made in public the declaration, that though

Opiun.

312

wine abounds in Spain , running as free as water almost, nevertheless an instance of drunkenness you

will rarely meet with if you go the country through in search of one.

37. The physiological portraiture of drunkenness is very accurately drawn by Lucretius: “ Denique cor hominum , quum vini vis penetravit Acris, et in venas discessit deditus humor, Consequitur gravitas membrorum , præpediuntur

Crura vacillanti, tardescit lingua, madet mens,

Nant oculi; clamor et singultus, jurgia gliscunt.”

38. Did drunkenness first comein with the invention of the still ? Far otherwise : it simply took a new

departure for a wider field . The inebriating quality pertaining to many of the wines of antiquity is tes tified to abundantly. “ Of such strength was the

Samagorean (says Aristotle), three cotylæ sufficed to intoxicate forty men .” The wine of Byblos re quired for obviating reaction upon the head a tem pering by commingling one part of sea-water for

every fifty (Morewood). The Lageos of the Georgics

was obviously an intoxicating wine.* The Thracian too required reducing to the extent of twenty parts

of water to one. This is the wine Horace singles out for especial animadversion , as being heady and mightily excitive of rage and violence.† Wine it was, * « Tenuisque Lageos, Tentatura pedes olim victuraque linguam ,

* * spumans plenis vindemia labris.” † “ Natis in usum lætitiæ scyphis Pugnare, Thracum est ; tollite barbarum Morem ."

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy — Which ? 313 profusely streaming in honor of the Trojan horse that

had been pompously inducted within the city -walls, which gave the wily Greek ready access to Ilion's

fated towers and prepared the way for a devastation effected in one brief night which a ten years' siege had failed to accomplish .* Dioscorides adverts to an ale which excited the brain powerfully, such as the

Gaulic tribes were passionately inclined to (Tacitus) ; a liquor for strength and in physiological action

about on a par with the Worcestershire cider of to day, upon which the farm -laborers get their brain muddled day after day, and to their certain deteriora tion, moral and physical as well (Melville). 39. Upon a comparison of lager-beer with stronger liquors it is asserted and confidently claimed by ex

perts, that the encouragement of the former operates to the displacement and the exclusion of intoxicants

proper, and therefore most unequivocally to the en

couragement and advancement of temperance. There is plausibility and truth also in support of the declar ation. On entering a German saloon one must be

careful how he confounds the boisterous (and some times clamorous)hilarity so characteristic of the Teu tonic temperament with that furor of excitement

which only whiskey arouses. When the head is clear and the heart still in the right place gratuitous

apprehensions are uncalled for. The writer has visited

the German pleasure-rendezvous of various name a * “ Invadunt (Græci) urbem somnoque vinoque sepultam .” EXEIT), ii. 27

314

Opium.

hundred times certainly , and for the express purpose of “ spying out the land ;” and he has yet to stumble upon the first drunkard thereabouts to be found.

Let any one, competent upon past observation to decide in the matter, contrast in his own mind the low groggery with its ugly surroundings, that blight spot that was upon every village and every four corners of New England a half-century back , with

that favorite institution of Vaterland the “ garten" of to-day, and he will soon make up his estimate and

without perplexity . 40. The main conclusion fairly deducible from such

a chain of correlative facts as has just been adduced is undoubtedly and unmistakably this : That when

pure wine made in harmony with nature's teachings

shall have superseded the animalizing products of the still and those more poisonous liquids from the chemical laboratory, then shall sobriety universally prevail and “ the land have rest.” Certain statistical returnspremonitive of such change arehere subjoined.

The importations of wine into Great Britain for the year

1857 were, 6 ,600,000 gallons; for 1867 “ 13,750,000 "

The amount in gallons of alcoholic liquors consumed in the kingdom was, for 1857, 24,150,000 ; “ 1867, 21,200 ,000. As wine increases whiskey declines (Macculloch ).

41. In this relationship the teachings of the Sacred Records as embodied in the two Testaments have a pertinent significance, based as they are upon certified

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy — Which ? 315 authority.* The Hebrewson their exode from Egypt took the art of wine-making along with them , though

indeed wine was a familiar beverage earlier than this, even in the days of the patriarchs. Abraham on re turning from the slaughter of the kings at Chaveh is

entertained by Melchizedek of Salem , who “ brought forth bread and wine” (Gen . xiv - 18). Isaac in pro nouncing over thehead of Jacob the blessing intended for the son of his own heart, Esau , thus expresseth himself : “ God give thee of the dew of heaven and

of the fatness of the earth , and plenty of corn and wine” (Gen . xxvii - 28 ). How liberally wine was used

later as well as early appears from a piece of history connected with the building of the Temple, the cove nant on the part of Solomon to supply the workmen

his brother Hiram of Tyre had furnished with “ twenty thousand baths of wine,” besides breadstuffs and oil. Nehemiah also , now commissioned by Ahasuerus

to be governor over Jerusalem ,among other supplies befitting his station is ordered every ten days a pro

vision of wine of every sort (v – 18). * The argument from Scripture is addressed to those who recog nize the paramount authority of Scripture as covering all questions that concern practical ethics and moral expediency and duty. With others unto whom the dispensation of “ another gospel” has been committed , and who have substituted in place of the good old con

servative maxim , “ Hold fast that which is good ,” an exotic text

as embodied in the formula , “ Nous avons changé tout cela,” any course of argumentation founded upon the Gospel proper will pass

of course for so much “ idle preaching ”

This garde à cheval of the

Progressives having about attained the Ultima Thule of scientific exploration , knowledge (as we confidently calculate) will die with

these same (vide Job xii-1, 2).

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Opium .

42. Concerning wine viewed as a beverage the tenor of the Sacred Books appears to be uniform and con sistent, to the effect that wine familiarly drunk , i.e.

used temperately and with regard to “ times and sea sons,” is not adverse to a wholesome morality nor incompatible with the religious life . On this point a

single passage might be pronounced decisive. In his Epistle to the Church at Ephesus (Eph. v , 18) Paul sends the brethren this admonition : “ Be not drunken with wine wherein (in actu , not in re- Alford) is ex

cess.” The drinking of sikera even (a strong wine), is expressly authorized in Deut. xiv — 26 (Prof. Green ).

In the Song of Moses addressed to the children of Israel in his prospective view of death upon Pisgah 's rock -tower he lauds the goodness of God toward “ Jacob his inheritance,” among other privileges specifying the pure blood of the grape (vide chap . xxii - 14) provided in the divine munificence for his

habitual enjoyment. Shemarim — " a generous old wine of color still resting upon the lees” (Gesenius) —

is spoken of commendatorily by Isaiah (vide xxv- 6 ) in the promised feast, “ a feast of fat things, of wine

on the lees well refined,” and yet the same is point edly reprobated in Ps. lxxv- 8 , in Prov. xx- 1, and in Zeph. i.- 12, and for very sufficient reasons. Jesus

himself, far from deprecating the familiar drinking of matured wines out of conscientious scruples in view of possiblemisuse and excess, takes occasion to give to such his special sanction : " No man having drunk old wine straightway desireth new ; for, saith he, the

old is better” (Luke v - 39 ). One of the virtues as

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy - Which ? 317 cribed by Pliny to wine is its life-giving efficacy under this every -day wear-and-tear: “ Utilissimum vinum omnibus, viribus fractis.” Paul embodies the same doctrine in his precept to Timothy : “ Be no

longer a mere water-drinker, but use wine moderately on thy stomach ' s account and for thy frequently re curring infirmities” (1. Tim . v - 23), (as under the toils and embarrassments incident to a missionary of the

new religion ). “ Old wine" is the sort here referred to , for none other acts as a true roborant. Isaiah (lv - 1) associates wine and milk as both food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty . 43. Associations of wine with corn and oil (one or both ) abound all the way along. Moses in another

passage of the song before alluded to thus addresses the assembled congregation : “ The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine” (Deut. xxxiii

28). The Psalmist praises the equal mercies of Is rael's Protector, as represented in the wine that glad deneth and the bread that strengtheneth man's heart, and in the oil that maketh his face to shine (civ - 15 ) - oil for external refection , corn and wine for inter

nal recuperation and exhilaration. Videalso Hosea xiv -6, 7, and Joel ii- 19 . The prominence that wine singly or in association everywhere maintains is sig nificantly indicated in Rev. vi-6 on the opening of the third seal, when a black horse with his rider the

personification of famine comes forth , but under the special inhibitory injunction — “ See thou hurt notthe oil and the wine.”

44. Denunciations of wine are aimed uniformly at 27 *

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Opium .

the extravagance of excess, as is observed in mere pleasure -seekers and those who are “ mighty to drink wine” (Prov. xxi- 17 and Isa . V - 22). “ The woe pro

nounced in Isa . V -11, 12 is uttered against such as rise at an unseasonable morning-hour to devote the day to hilarious rioting, and at an untimely season especially when Jehovah in his providence was ex acting of his people an abstinent moderation , sober

reflection and penitential humiliation. So Paul in his first Epistle to Corinth (xi-21, 22) addresses the communicants in terms of exprobration, and because of their converting a solemn festival into a scene of

gluttony and revelry ” (Prof. Green ).* 45. The model bishop (Paul to Timothy, I. iii - 3 ) need not be an extremist in one direction nor may

he prudently allow himself an unlimited latitude in

the other. He must not be raporvos, i.e. he is en joined from making his wine-bottle a companion in the hours of study or of official business.

So also

the deacons (8 v.) should be no more “ given to much wine” than be “ greedy of filthy lucre.” A

similar monition is addressed to “ aged women” (Titus ii- 3). John the Baptist who had taken upon himself the Nazarite's vow was declared by the Pharisees to

be possessed of a devil, and all because he eschewed wine altogether ; the Son of man who went about as

other people did ,eating bread and drinking winewith * The writer takes pleasure in thus publicly acknowledging his obligations to this distinguished Hebraist for valuable exegetical

notitiæ in elucidation of certain passages of Scripture. May his shadow never be less !

The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy — Which ? 319 them (Luke vii -33, 34), is pronounced by these same " righteous” “ a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber," although the gist and climax of the charge against him appears to have been, that he could afford to compromise his good name (if he had any) in letting himself down to the low level of humanity and so

consorting familiarly with “ publicans and sinners” (vide Matt. ix - 11 and xi- 19).

CHAPTER XXV. OPIUM

AND

CANNABIS

INDICA

CONTRASTED .

“ Fallax Herba veneni.” – Virgil . “ That juice — the bane, And blessing ofman 's heart and brain That draught of sorcery, which brings Phantoms of fair forbidden things.” — MOORE.

1. The authorities upon Cannabis besides those to be specified are Rhases, Kaempfer, D 'Herbelot, Hérault,Mantegazza, and others. The solid extract (which is procured from the summitates of the herb ) is called Hashisch in Arabia , Gunjah and Churrus in India (where it is also familiarly known as the “ Herbe des Fakirs” ), Bust or Sheera in Egypt, El Mogen by

the Moors, and among the Hottentots Dacha or

Dagga (Von Bibra ). Bangue (Bang) or Bendji is the spirituous extract. .

2. Cannabis as a stimulating narcotic has for some centuries at the shortest been known and familiarly used in India , Persia , Bokhara, and other countries, and in some of the Islands. In Egypt, particularly

among the lower orders, it takes precedence of opium , and is chewed or sometimes smoked from the goseh

(Lane). Bang — the more active preparation — is con spicuous for its inebriative and delirative operation .

3. The Massageta (as is related by Herodotus), a people on the Araxes, had a seed (conjectured to ( 320 )

Opium and Cannabis Indica Contrasted.

321

have been this same seed of Indian Hemp or perhaps of the Datura), which thrown upon hot stones sent forth a vapor that excited boisterous mirth and shout

ing. Davis the navigator on visiting Sumatra found such a seed, a little only of which being eaten gave to every object a metamorphosed appearance and turned the man for the time into a fool. Dampier observed among the natives of this island an herb which produced exhilaration and then stupefaction ,

making the eater lively or dull, witty or foolish , or merry or sad, according to the predominant tempera ment.

4 . Hashisch far surpasses opium in relative power.

A dose of twenty centigrammes of the resinoid re peated three or four times shows activity in half an hour, but the full effect is not attained short of three

times this space . The duration of action is three to four hours (Steeze of Bucharest). Irregularity and uncertainty in action are doubtless to be ascribed to adulteration (Schroff ). 5 . The full impression once produced the brain is

speedily affected with a sensation of extraordinary elasticity and lightness and the senses becomewon drously acute, a tingling as from an electric shock is felt shooting from the spinal centre to the periphery

of the body, the vault of the cranium is lifted off as it were by the expansive force within , the skull seem

ing as if enlarged to the dimensions of a colossus; and now with one impetuous rebound the experi

menter rises above this low commonplace of terrene existence to soar in a purer ether above. If still

322

Opium.

conscious of a lingering upon the confines of earth he sways himself along in a balancing gait as though he were under a sort of ivresse. External impres sions as from the pricking of a pin or a stroke from the hand may perchance pass unheeded. Objects in the immediate range seem invested with an unwonted

splendor, human faces take on a seraphic lustre, and the man for the time feels himself to be possessed of the power of ubiquity. According to the varying humor things around may seem to have assumed a fantastic dress, .when peals of laughter will break forth ; or suddenly a change will have come over the spirit,when under the impressions produced by lugu

brious images and depressing apprehensions themind will be wrapped in cloudiness and gloom (Polli). 6 . The appetite is assisted by moderate doses but made ravenous for the time by large onės , and the

digestive function is correspondingly aroused while constipation is obviated, and the various secernent

processes go on in their normal way (Dr. Teste ). Not until after long -continued and excessive use does appetite decline, as is observable of the Arabs, says

Auber, who finally get fleshless and withered as the general tendency to decay becomes more distinct and

progressive.

7 . An excessive dose hinders the approach of sleep ; a moderate one brings on a sopor speedy and irre sistible. This sleep may be profound and stertorous, or it may partake more of the dreaminess of ecstasy . In the story ofMahmoud lord of the Black Isles , the

wife, to cover up her absence for the night, admin

Opiumn and Cannabis Indica Contrasted.

323

isters just before going out a powder that soporizes

him immediately and effectually for the time, or until she shall return again to awaken him with a per fume placed under the nostrils.

This powder there

is reason for believing was some preparation (simple or compounded) of the hemp.

In another of the

stories of the “ Nights,” that of the Jew Physician , is

a similar incident described. So the chamberlain of Ala -ed-Deen is suddenly thrown into a profound

şleep by the use of a powder which Ahmed Kamakim an arch -thief throws upon his face. Unlike that after the opium -sleep, the sensation on awaking is one of

refreshing. 8. The mental condition is an ideal existence, the most vivid , the most fascinating. Time and space

both seem to have expanded by an enormous mag nification ; pigmies have swelled to giants,mountains have grown out of molehills, days have enlarged to

years and ages. De Moria in wending his way one evening to the opera -house, seemed to himself to

have been three years in traversing the corridor. De Saulcy having once fallen into a state of insensibility

following upon incoherent dreamings, fancied he had lived meanwhile a hundred years. Rapidity as well as intensity of thought is a noticeable phenome

non . De Lucca after swallowing a dose of the paste saw as in a flitting panorama the various events of

his entire life all proceeding in orderly succession , though he was powerless in the attempt to arrest and detain a single one of them for a more deliberate con templation . Memory is sometimes very singularly

324

Opium .

modified nevertheless, there being perhaps a forget fulness not of the object but of its name proper, or the series of events that transpired during the par oxysm may have passed away into a total oblivion. 9. The normal mental condition is that of an exube

rant enjoyance rather than the opposite , that of mel ancholy and depression , though the transition from the one state to the other may be as extreme as it is

swift. Oftener the subject is kept revolving in a de lirious whirl of hallucinatory emotions, when images the most grotesque and illusions the drollest and most fantastic crowd along, one upon another, with

a celerity almost transcending thought (Mirza Abdul Roussac). 10. Command over the will is maintainable , but temporarily only . As self-control declines the mind is swayed by the mere fortuitous vagaries of the fancy ; and now it is that the dominant characteristic

ormental proclivity has its real apocalypsis.

The

outward expression may reveal itself under a show

of complacency and contentment in view of things around, or suspicion , distrust, and querulousness of disposition may work to the surface, or may -be a lordly hauteur that exacts an unquestioning homage

from the “ profanum vulgus” by virtue of an affected superiority over common mortals, is the ruling idea of the hour ; or peradventure the erotic impulses may

for the time overshadow and disguise all others. 11. Amid the ever-shifting spectacular scene the sense of personal identity is never perhaps entirely lost ,

but there does arise in very rare instances the notion

Opium and Cannabis Indica Contrasted.

325

of a duality of existence ; not the Persian idea pre cisely , that of two souls occupying one and the same

body in a joint-stock association as it were (the doc trine as alluded to by Xenophon in the story of the beautiful Panthea), but rather the idea ofone and the

same. soul in duplication or bipartition else, and present in two bodies.*

12. The rapturous delights inspired by the beatific visions thus find expression in an exclamation of

an aged Brahmin : “ O sahib, sahib, you can never know what perfect pleasure is until you see as I

have seen and feel as I have felt — spectacles the * Note. This impression of a dualism of existence has forced it self upon the imagination in certain forms of disease. There was a

friend of ours, a New York lawyer, hard -sick at one time with vari

oloid upon him , who happening to have been left alone to his musings on an evening hour, fancied all of a sudden as he was lying upon his bed as usual that he saw his own duplicate ensconced in an

arm -chair beside the chimney-recess, and that he hailed the phan tom in these terms: “ Comrade, why you fool! what have you sneaked away into that corner for ? Get up and come to bed here, I tell you !" A very singular case bearing analogy to this is recently

reported as described by Joffe in Dr. Hammond's Journal of Psychol ogy, that of a man perpetually possessed of the idea that another self ofhis, like in the material configuration but diverse altogether in

mental constitution , accompanied him side by sidewherever he went

or whenever he tarried , ceaselessly and inevitably. Whatever evil thoughts he harbored or whatever acts ofwrong-doing he committed , for these he declared himself exonerated, throwing off the responsi bility and the blame upon his companion . For an attempt to com mit suicide (or, as he called it, an effort to kill his persecutor), he was arrested and taken to an appropriate hospital. The case pre

sents a very anomalous form of insanity. 28

326

Opium .

most gorgeous, perfumes the most delicious, music

themost transporting and bewildering." * 13. The inspiration of the Pythian priestess at Delphi has been attributed to opium and again to hashisch ,

and not unlikely both conspired to the effect. This improvisatore power was amusingly developed one day in a pupil of Dr. O 'Shaughnessy 's, upon a trial

of ten minims of the tincture. The young man in the ecstasy of the excitement assumed the airs and language of an Indian rajah , talking learnedly and

haranguing with great volubility in a lively dis play of brilliant fancy and logical acuteness, to the

admiration of friends no less than to his own as tonishment as subsequently felt (for the recollection of his scenic personations survived the performance), inasmuch as a habitual taciturnity and an unostenta * Note. In a Prize-essay lately read before the Amer. Philosophical Society by H . C . Wood , M . D ., the Professor records an experimenta

tion with somewhat unexpected results, as conducted upon himself . The preparation used was an extract made from Kentucky hemp, in quantity about half a drachm .

The effect, which began in three

hours , lasted into the following day. Atmidnight a profound sleep had come over him , and in the hours of waking there was noted an

anæsthesia affecting the entire skin. The characteristic expansion of time and space was a conspicuous symptom . Mental action as

an effect of volitional effort was mostly restrained, from the embar

rassment experienced in attempts towards a concentration of the thoughts. A sense of impending death besides hung over him at intervals. In a student who experimented with a grain - dose, there was developed a hilarious excitement simply , with a sexual

erethism ensuing which did not relax short of three days. This sci

entific paper (the first contribution of the kind to the medical litera . ture of America ) should command the attention of the Profession .

Opium and Cannabis Indica Contrasted .

327

tious carriage were so congenial and habitual to the young man. The paroxysm having lasted six hours , a retransformation occurring somewhat suddenly was

complete nevertheless. 14 . This singular excitant, extensively known in the age of the Crusades, appears to have been used

by the Saracens for a double purpose, to kindle up the ardor of the soldier against the Paynim , and in larger dose to beguile his adversary into a careless

security and so to facilitate the stealthy use of the poignard. In the neighborhood of Mount Libanus there existed from the beginning of the twelfth cen

tury for about one hundred and fifty years a military organization , made up for the most part of rude hordes gathered out of the tribes of Kurdistan. Ish maelitish by genealogy, vindictive in their passions

and implacable in their resentments, while professing fealty to the Crescent they campaigned oftener in reality , “ their hand being against every man and

every man's hand being against them .”

Their gen

eralissimo was known as “ Le Vieux de la Montagne” (Von Hammer). At Allamut and Massiat were their

famed gardens, secluded by high walls from the vul gar gaze but within adorned with every decoration and luxury that could entrance the vision and capti vate appetite ; and here presided girls of enchanting beauty and ravishing seductiveness, the houris of the scene. Tito this “ outer court of the temple,” the

youthful aspirant to the honor of a matriculatory membership having been previously drugged with hashisch,was mysteriously conveyed, here to breathe

328

Opium .

the balmy airs of a terrestrial paradise, introductory to the solemn oath of covenant which at once ex acted entire and unquestioning obedience and which denounced an abjuration on peril of life . Such were

the Herb - eating Assassins, the “ Hashasheen ” (De Sacy ). A final dispersion was carried out by the vic

torious sword of Hûlâkû, when Aldjebal, Khalif of Baldrach, after sustaining a siege of three years was shut up in a tower by Ulau , there to perish in his solitude by a lingering death (Benjamin of Tudela ).

15 . Hashisch,more energetic in action than opium , is in comparison prematurely exhaustive also. Rapid deterioration of the physical forces is to be expected, and as is thought a determination towards phthisis may be established. The ultimate mental condition

is that of dementia. The santons (holy men) of Egypt, those distinguished objects of popular vene ration in their wanderings from town to town, are

living illustrations of this degenerescence, in their

corporeal as well as in their mental decay. 16 . Quite unlike opium in one characteristic, ha shisch is a powerful aphrodisiac ( O 'Shaughnessy), ranking second on the list perhaps, or after arsenic .

The power of the latter indeed appears remarkable.

In the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal is a case from Dr. Parker, that of a young man thirty years old at his death, who began the use at the age of four.

A double effect ensued, a prodigious de

velopment of the sexual organs in size, and a pro portionate exaltation of function amounting to an impetuous and uncontrollable salacity.

Opium and Cannabis Indica Contrasted .

329

17. Deleterious as is hashisch in the ordinary habit ual use, it may be counteracted or neutralized very

' effectually for the time by the free use of lemon-juice. Dr. Castelnuovo a resident in the country for thirty years observes, that the people of Tunis understand the secret thoroughly and avail themselves habitually

of the benefits.

18. Bearing an analogy to the poppy from their more intimate relationship to cannabis are Hyoscya mus, Belladonna, and the Datura family . The first

reckoned by Von Hammer to have been identical in origin with the bendji - produces giddiness and stu pidity . Belladonna, that " insane root that takes the

reason prisoner” (rather is it one out of a number of such ), excites delirium and the risus sardonicus (Ray ).

The pathologic mental phasis is described

by Winslow as a species of “ hallucination without fantasia ," i.e. a metamorphosis of things actual in

idea rather than a display of mere fanciful creations without analogies in natural things. A pathologic condition has been remarked simulating delirium tremens. The recollection of past phenomena is

found to have been obliterated ‘at once and irre coverably .

19. Datura brings spectral illusions, but leaves a persistent, perhaps incurable stupidity. A singular effect wrought upon the memory is in the inter changing of the names of objects, there being at the same time a conscious perception of the incongrui

ties.

The daturas possess strong erotic powers , and

a species is used in India by courtesans upon them 28 *

330

Opium .

selves and for the benefit of their visiting friends.

The cordial sometimes made by digesting the seeds in wine is especially dangerous to the sex by a double action, exciting physical desire most actively for the

time and making the subject oblivious altogether of any faux-pas adventures hazarded

CHAPTER XXVI. TOBACCO, AND COCA (CUZCAN TOBACCO), CONTRASTED WITH OPIUM .

“ Non epulis tantum , non Bacchi pascimur usu ; Pascimur et fumis - ingeniosa gula est.” SCHOLA SALERNITANA.

“ Sublime tobacco !

Magnificent in Stamboul, though less grand

Yet not less loved in Wapping or the Strand.” — BYRON.

1. Tobacco — conjectured by Humboldt to have been familiar to the tribes on the Orinoco from immemorial

times — is doubtless an indigenous American plant. Certain it is the samewas well known to the mound builders, as is attested by the elaborately -wrought

pipes that have been exhumed among other relics of theirs . In 1560 it was that Jean Nicot carried the

first specimen seen in Europe to Catherine de Mé dicis,whence the various names applied ,as Nicotiana, Tabasco , and the Herbe de la Reine.* Hernandez de Toledo has the title “ Herba Sacra.”

2. In China the people of all ages are addicted to the pipe.

This and the pouch for the material

girls even are in the habit of carrying upon their persons. The Japanese are more precise, smoking after tea only. In all Mohammedan countries as * “ Unde, rogas , nomen mihi sit vulgare , Tabasco ; Contulit agnomen cui Catharina suam . " - - SALERNUM .

( 331 )

332

Opium .

well as in Europe and America , tobacco is so gene rally used it may be said to have attained a citizen .

ship properly cosmopolitan. The Icelanders are so

powerfully addicted to the herb from constant habit uation,they sometimes use the infusion as a purgative (Linnæus). The pipe bears various names according to country . The hookah of India , the tsarbuck of the Turk , and the narghilé of the Persian are to the Orientals what the meerschaum is to the Allemanian and the calumet to the Cheyenne of the Plains. In the consumption of the article the Zollverein goes ahead of the rest of the civilized world , but the United States take rank of England and France

both . Our average for the half of the male popula tion past eighteen years is calculated at 7 .6 pounds per annum . ( Vide p . 40, note.)

3. The controversy respecting the relative merits and demerits of tobacco — a debate coeval with the dis covery by Columbus almost — has scarcely as yet

brought the quæstio vexata to an accepted issue. The allegations on either side in a large degree offset

those advanced on the opposite. The laudations and the denunciations defiantly face each other at point blank range.

The “ Counterblaste," which was ful

minated against the narcotic and all its adherents

and apologists by that shallow -pate pedant and arro gant sciolist the First James, in a comparison as delicate as it is original likens the fumeous exhalation from the pipe-bowl to “ the horrible Stygian smoke

of the 'pit that is bottomlesse.” In the counterbal ancing scale let us now lay the eulogistic enumera

Tobacco and Coca Contrasted with Opium . 333

tion of qualities as summed up by Beaumont,and see where the preponderance lies : “ The cold it doth heat, Cooleth them that do sweat, And them that be fat it makes lean ;

The hungry it feeds; And if there be needs

Restores the spent spirits again .”

4. Upon the main question and in this place note that veracious and earnest declaration by a most appreciative and candid observer, one Captain Boba

dil, in a conference with his friend Master Stephen : “ What I now tell you, sir, not the world shall re prove. I have myself been in the Indies where this herb (the Trinidado ) grows, and where neither myself nor a dozen gentlemen more have of my certain knowledge received the taste of any nutriment in the world for the space of one and twenty weeks, save and except the fume of this simple only . I do hold

it, and I will affirm it, sir, and before any prince or potentate in Europe, Asia or Africa, to be the most sovereignest and preciousest weed that earth hath rendered to the use and consolation of man .” *

5. But let us hear expatiate on this theme one Dr. Cornelius Bonteké, a chevalier of the Restoration

period. “ A remarkable fact it is (he observeth ) that three things of the greatestmoment to mankind were discovered at about the same era ; the circumnaviga tion of the globe,the circulation of the blood, and the * Vide “ Every Man in his Humour.”

334

Opium .

smoking of tobacco . This is the very best remedy to be found in the world against that root of all the dis eases afflicting mankind, the scurvy. "Is one amorous at heart and joyless in his loneliness, is he sick and weak in body or torpid and stiff in the joints , is there pain in the head, eyes or teeth , doth colic or gout or stone exist, or is there a proneness to crapulency ?

Here in this glorious weed is provided an all-sufficient remedy for his manifold ills.”

Such is the tenor of

this “ Message to Humanity," so called . The doc tors of Salernum were of quite another mind plainly : “ Vix est medicina, Tabacum ;

Phoebe pater, qui nos liberet, ecquis erit ?” 6 . In Eastern lands the Tombak of Persia and the

Latakia (Laodicea of old being its home) rank all the

other names. The narcotic element and that which exerts the toxic force is Nicotina, a concrete oleagi

nous liquor volatilizable at 250° F ., harsh to the fauces and irritating, and in the vapory state non-res pirable. This oil it was (as Orfila has conjectured) that

constituted the “ juice of cursed hebenon,” which was dropped into the ear of the royal Dane. An analysis

by Jolly gives the following ratios of oil as found in specimens of different tobaccos: For the Cuban 2 per-cent, for Virginian about 7, for that of the Ga ronne district near 8 . German tobacco abounds in this oil, and so does the Perrique of Louisiana, a brand held in foremost repute nevertheless for its

strong aroma. Upon examining a specimen from the Levant, so minute was the proportion of oil present

Tobacco and Coca Contrasted with Opium . 355 that not a trace was detectable.

Vauquelin reckons

that in this inheres the active principle of the plant. Another constituent (toxic also in its effects but in

quantity being in the proportion of about one-sixth of the other) is Nicotianine, the same to which the

peculiar flavor as developed in the smoke mainly attaches (Schlosing, Posselt). At some of the fac tories in France these two elements are reduced by a process of depuration by one-fourth of the entire

(Dubuque). 7. Nicotina in its concentrated form is a deadly toxic. Five drops in the hands of Orfila killed a dog

in a brief space . A single drop laid upon the tongue of a kitten produced tetanic convulsions at once, and

death in five minutes after. Similar experiments with like results havebeen madeby Brodie and by Mussey . C . Bernard employed the hypodermic mode of injec tion. At the St. Giles dispensary under the charge of Dr. Little, it was observed in several instances that fresh leeches if applied to the bodies of veteran

smokers all of a sudden dropped off dead. A cup of wine upon which a companion had mischievously

sprinkled the contents of a snuff-box brought a speedy death to the poet Santeuil. 8. An event, that for the novelty of the agent em ployed excited at the time the universal attention of

medical men and other scientists, was a homicide perpetrated in 1850 upon M . de Fougnies, a Belgian residing at Hainault. The Count de Bocarmé, in concert with his wife (a sister of the designated vic tim ), had plotted the death of this man , and upon

336

Opiuin .

the expectation of securing a property -reversion .

The count shut himself up in his private laboratory for ten consecutive days and nights, assiduously ex

perimenting upon tobacco until he had finally suc ceeded in extracting a very inconsiderable amount

of the oil, enough barely to fill two small vials of the pipe-stem size. The quantity employed for the occa

sion was reckoned to have been about 7

grains,

and this was dexterously thrown into the soup-plate

of Fougnies as they were seated at dinner. Clonic spasms ensued to terminate in a speedy and (as it seemed at the time) a mysterious death.

The count

suffered by the guillotine ; his no less guilty accom plice escaped the same. 9. This oil has left its deep traces behind , even

where fatality did not ensue. There is the case of the Frenchman as given by Bernard, who undertook on his homeward way to cross the German border

with tobacco-leaves enveloping his body underneath the clothing he wore. Characteristic symptoms of poisoning ensued , not fatal indeed but scarcely com

pensated by his success in the smuggling -way. Gal lavardin relates a similar undertaking in 1801 by the

several members of a troop of horse as they were about ready to re-enter French territory. Intermit tent pulse with clammy sweats appeared, though in the end all came out right. Rayer and Andral knew of like instances.

10 . An adventure in illustration pertains to our own

recent history . During the war against the Confed erate States, a detachment of Union soldiers having

Tobacco and Coca Contrasted with Opium . 337 come into possession ofone of the enemy's outposts,

found among other spoils a hogshead of whiskey, which for convenience they stove in at the head. The liquor having been dipped up there was ob served at the bottom a mass of settlings of a very

suspicious look ,which upon examination turned out to be fifteen pounds or so of half-digested tobacco

leaves. Whether this tinctura tabaci exerted its proper effect in calling upon their stomachs to make a speedy rendition of the contents, report answereth

not. Our citizen -immigrants that come from Erin 's Isle indicate as is said a liking for this sort of “ sea soning."

11. Tobacco appears furthermore to develop some times a certain idiosyncrasy. Dr. Druhen gives three

cases. An advocate thirty years old and of athletic frame had a spinal affection , the cause of which

appeared inscrutable until by -and-by the cigar came to be suspected. On his leaving off all symptoms disappeared as if by enchantment. Tempted again

at the sight he smoked two cigars afresh ,when the morbid condition revived. A final abandonment was

now made, and steel and other tonics brought about an effectual recuperation in the course of a month . The second patient was a man of the melancholic temperament, who had pursued a similar course and with a similar experience. The third was a gentle

man suffering under abdominal pains accompanied by tremors and uncomfortable hallucinations. Upon

advice he gave up his tobacco ; but feeling he could not hold on he resumed the narcotic again , declaring 1 29

338

Opium .

that rather than suffer the deprivation he would accept the penalties, and even greater. 12. Like unto opium in this particular tobacco con centrates its forces upon special organs. To begin

with the brain . Van Helmont and Hoffman (who wrote three hundred years ago) tell us of brains that they found, all “ seared through and blackened over" from the constant presence of tobacco -fumes. Lungs and stomachs too it appears fared in those days only a little less severely . In the age spoken of there

seems to have been a very considerable abounding of “ ignorance in spite of experience," a preconcerted

arraying of crude hypotheses in obstinate antagonism to experiment and observation ; the setting up of pre conceived speculation against logical induction , of positivism by negation against positivism by fair de

duction. The speculatists of the tribe alluded to would fain have us believe for all, that they them selves “ Had first-matter seen undressed ; Had ta’en her naked and alone, Before one rag of form was on ."

The brain in common with the nervous system gen

erally, is obnoxious to an undue excitation from the over-use of the narcotic to the extent of a tran sient delirium even, but degenerescence of substance with confirmed perversion of function is very ex ceptional.

13. In whatway (if any) and to what extent tobacco disturbs the intellectual powers and modifies the emo tional susceptibilities, is an inquiry calling for some

Tobacco and Coca Contrasted with Opium . 339 notice here. On this point thus speaks Goethe : “ L 'homme de génie ne peut cultiver en même temps

la science et la pipe."

This narcotic far from ener

gizing the thinking faculty for the time seems rather to “ steep the senses (the intellectual, that is) in for getfulness.” The smoker withdraws from the dinner

table for the lounge with pipe for company, not for the purpose of working up the cogitative faculties to a fever-heat temperature, but rather to dampen the intellectual fires and bring them down to the zero point, the stage of oblivious passivity and apathy.

In favoring and accelerating a lapse in this direction tobacco has been a powerful coadjutor. A brother of Dr. Hervey of Staten Island, in addition to a pleu rodynia , was suffering an extreme nervousness, brought on by an insomnia that had been growing

upon him for six years in consequence of severe ap plication to study and books, notwithstanding his

carefully regulated habits and the suspension of his intellectual exercises by the time night had set in .

Unused to the weed in any form and averse to the very sight of it as he was, he nevertheless upon the

doctor's urging consented to make the trial upon himself. A few puffs from a cigar sufficed to throw

him speedily into a quiet and dreamless sleep, though in instances not rare he had gone four and even six hours without so much as falling into a momentary slumber (Amer. Journal Med. Sciences). Of Boer

haave it is related ( F. Winslow ), that being one time absorbed in a profound scientific inquiry he went sleepless for six weeks together, such was the strain

340

Opium .

put upon his nerves meanwhile. Accustomed to the

familiar use of tobacco as he was, it were not to be presumed he could have derived any corresponding

advantage unless after a very considerable interval of desuetude.

14. Cerebral disease, which is traceable to such a

variety of causes physical and moral both and which assumes so various complexions, does not originate

in the excessive use of tobacco it would appear unless exceptionally. Dr. Duglise out of a summary of 6610 cases refers only 127 of them to this source. Of the thirty thousand sailors in the French navy

(and all sailors take the quid and use the pipe both , even to a man of them ), there is no undue proportion of either lunatics or idiots. Disease of a nervous type indeed they of all classes almost are least ob

noxious to . Dr. Kirkbride at his Asylum in Phila delphia had in the year 1850 only 4 cases of the whole enumeration (Prof. Wood ).

The majority of

lunatics are women - snuff-takers an inconsiderable proportion of them , and in so far having a bon accord with the narcotic. Neither is paralysis traceable to

such cause . Moreau on visiting the hospitals of

the Levant (a country where smoking is the rule without the exception ) did not come upon the first

case. Grisolle indeed gives an account of a sexa genarian , who was verging towards dementia from

using the pipe for the larger part of the day butwho

recruited speedily after abruptly breaking off. The liability to epilepsy may be somewhat greater. Sir

C . Hastings saw an epileptic boy twelve years old

Tobacco and Coca Contrasted with Opium . 341 then, who got the better of his malady on laying aside the cigar-rouleau . 15 . As the brain does not from the supposed cause become especially obnoxious to disease, so neither

is longevity apparently reduced. Notable proof-in

stances are Hobbes of Malmesbury who lived to 92 in the free enjoyment of health , Newton who went to 84 and a bishop of St. Asaph 's who reached 91, and Dr. Parr (whose pipe one would have thought had

got glued to his lips) held out to the extreme of 98 · years. Carlyle, one of the veterans, “ still lives.” In filling out an enumeration of particulars in the bill of charges against the narcotic , one might well hesi tate at including the item of impaired mental function

when he contemplates such names as Locke, and Kant, and Schiller, and Johnson, and Frederic ,and Cromwell, and Napoleon (for all these illustrious names are closely associated with tobacco ); and yet what other article of the class has had dealt out to it a moiety only of the obloquy of epithet that has been

heaped upon this ? 16. Concerning heart-disease there is some positive evidence. While the 18th hussars were on service

in India, it was observed by the surgeon of the regi ment that in the cases where organic symptoms had become clearly developed, the system appeared as if surcharged with nicotine. Such impression is strengthened by a fact attested by Prof. Maillot. In

certain districts of France where brandy is drunk and tobacco is relatively little known, affections of

the organ are but rarely observed. 29 *

342

Opium .

17. Respecting amaurosis (to which amblyopia is the introduction ),there is some diversity of opinion . Hen

derson at the London Ophthalmic Hospital noted only three instances in two years, and these he doubted might be coincidences rather. Viardin is more posi tive, having witnessed three cases of subsidence on the withdrawal of the tobacco.

Sichel, with large

opportunities for observation, is even more decided . 18. Another local malady (one for which the cigar rather is responsible) is cancer of the lip . Larrey put the proportion at 1 in 25, and Warren of Boston was of concurrent opinion but on no statistics as pro

duced. The snuff-dippers south of“ Mason and Dixon” (and they have been reckoned , high and low , at 40 per-cent. of the entire population ) assuredly give no evidence of such proclivity , and indeed even in the

North the affection rarely falls under the notice of the surgeon. Fleury of France who had operated upon many miscellaneous cases, had treated none

such inside of the age of 40, but between 40 and 50 there had been 8 , and between 50 and 70 , 58 cases. Velpeau accounts the cigar-side of the lip as the

more liable. Concerning the teeth, it was decided at a convention of dentists held in Germany 1863,

that tobacco is innocuous upon these organs other wise than that it impairs their lustre.

In case of

caries the quid indeed undoubtedly acts not unfre quently as an anodyne. 19. Some time since the attention of Dr. Hoffman of California was directed to the fact, that greyheaded ness and premature baldness are affections unusually

Tobacco and Coca Contrasted with Opium . 343 abounding in that State. He associates these fea tures with the excessive use of tobacco as thereabouts prevailing. There was a gentleman he knew of not yet turned of 40, who had got both grey and bald ,

and had been so for six years. He had smoked to bacco to such excess he was compelled to give it up altogether. To his great surprise it was not long be fore new hair and of the naturalhue began to sprout again , until by the time his original robustness had becomere-established he had as heavy a scalp to show as anybody.

The dull waxiness of skin so common

among tobacco -votaries had given place to a healthy look . Now one case does not authorize a conclusion ,

but it is one among the “ instances,” a conclusive case pro tanto.

20. That tobacco creates a certain liability to serious

morbid changes, no physician conversant with cases would tolerate the questioning of. Here is an illus tration . The Abbé Mignet having been excessively addicted to his pipe, began to observe in himself a

general hebetude of the body, a loss of memory and

an unstable working of the mind, and indeed an im paired condition of the functions all through . The narcotic having been renounced altogether he was

soon restored to his normal health . Similar was the experience of the chemist Dubumfraut. 21. Tobacco appears to be less congenial to those of sedentary occupation , and such especially as have made their beginning (as is usually the case with

apprentices to trades) early in life.

Dr. Needon of

the Sanitary department, Saxony, in a report on the

344

Opium .

draftings into the army for a year makes the number of the rejected from among the tailors the largest in proportion, viz. two-thirds. The writer recalls to mind here a tiny youth , an artisan that was, snugly

built and well proportioned, whose enslavement to the cigar showed unmistakable indications in the

sallowness of skin and the gauntiness of limb now beginning to be visible that he can never grow

bigger, not though he may swell and blow as never did the frog in his straining to outdo the ox. 22. Tobacco has had eulogists in plenty , but not upon them alone does its good name rest. Against the harassing wear-and-tear ofbody and mind exacted

by this restive civilization of ours, the weed as an ex traneous supplementary force ranks second scarcely

to any. The primary energy exerted is that of exhil aration ; then follows the tranquillizing sedative im

pression. Dr. Hammond * in a series of experiments himself being the subject, has verified very satisfac

torily what Liebig had asserted upon conjecture rather, that tissue-waste is retarded while the equi librium of the functions is yet maintained. The only

diminution in elemental material observed was in the phosphoric acid that goes to make bone. This appe

tite for tobacco it is to be observed is no result of tutoring but a real craving, the last to give way in sickness , the first to revive with the convalescence. 23. “ Tobacco ( says Sir B . Brodie) is not prejudicial of course under whatever circumstances. To the soldier * Vide N . Amer. Review , no , 223, 1869.

Tobacco and Coca Contrasted with Opium . 345 before a beleaguered town awaiting his tardy break

fast, to the sailor contending with a raging storm when there is no time to stop at the caboose, to the

traveller through a barren and desolate region, to the pilgrim upon the Desert with his scant stock of dates ' where no water is' (as Péron found), the herb

is a most grateful invigorator. A constant use is quite another thing.” The sportsman on the prairies well knows that tobacco does something more than merely allay the feeling of hunger. To themerchant agitated through all his nerves from the perplexities

of business, to the adventurer embarked upon a perilous and doubtful enterprise, to the advocate after the excitements of the forum , to the physician amid the solicitudes from attendance in the sick chamber, to the farmer after his wearing work in the

field , here is a ready resource, which many such toilers have found mightily refreshing and recupera tive. The Arapahoe with his band roams through forest and over plain for days together, depending upon his pipe and handful of parched corn, as he tightens his belt from time to time to keep the stom

ach well girded ; and as for the Cornish miner with his pick or Pat in the trench , they would as soon rebel against a short allowance as would Jack -tar

tugging at the halyards. 24. The soldier, as Dr. Willis declares, finds in to bacco a supportive power under the fatigue incident to campaigning and a prophylactic againstmiasmatic

and other pestilential effluvia . So satisfied was Lou

vois of its value to the army then rendezvousing in

345

Opium .

Holland, that he was really more solicitous about

keeping up a regular supply than in providing for the proper ration of food. While Maestricht in 1579

was being invested by French troops, even thus early had the pipe come into so general use in camp that the saying became current there, “ Que faire en bi vouac à moins que l'on ne fume?" .

25. In regard to the condition of the ouvriers in the factories, the observations of Fourcroy in evidence of the comparative salubrity of such quarters are in

congruent considerably with othersmade by Mélier. The latter says (and he speaks of establishments as now conducted where there is more moisture present

and more floating dust around), that as many as one fifth of themen are compelled to suspend work occa sionally for themaigreur induced by impaired appetite

and the growing hebetude ofmind. Dr. Hammond on his visit to the Lorillard establishment in N . Y .,

found as good a show of vigorous health among the

employés as is common to large factories ofwhatever kind. One man who had been attached to the snuff department forty years had never taken a dose of medicine ; another, sixty -three years old and forty five of the time a worker in the midst of a cloud of

dust every day, had suffered nothing from all this barring a slight nervousness felt now and then. A bird nevertheless alighting in such an atmosphere will collapse and die almost outright; but then it is

to be recollected the various winged species require a breathing-air perpetually charged with oxygen and kept pure from contamination.

Tobacco and Coca Contrasted with Opium . 347 26 . In estimating the eligibility of tobacco to an in timate companionship various considerations must

have weight, as climate, race, physical organization, idiosyncrasy, and organic infirmity. The phlegmatic Mynheer at one continental extreme and Chinese John at an opposite one seem to indicate in them selves a tolerance surpassing that of the burly Briton

or the lank hidalgo. Some persons are morbidly

impressible to narcotic influences ofevery description ; others can bear nothing that exerts an overwrought action upon any particular organ ; and in not a few of every class there is a proneness to pulmonary congestion , perhaps to phthisis. Regard to safety in

the long run demands that a nice discrimination be

made between constitutional differences. 27. There is one part of the lifetime, and that is the period of corporeal development, from which the use

of tobacco in any form or upon any pretext must be inflexibly barred out, or a stinted growth and prema

ture decrepitude are certainly assured consequences. In the British Medical Journal, 1859, is a record by Dr. Decaisne of notes made upon 38 boys whose ages lay between the extremes of 9 and 15 years, who had used tobacco for periods varying from six

months to four times that. In 27 morbid symptoms

of some sort had appeared ; in 22 was observed an embarrassed circulation with palpitations and also in

digestion, and besides there had been created a taste for other descriptions of stimuli ; epistaxis had affected 12 ; a disappearance in part of the red corpuscles in the blood was ascertained of 8 , intermittent pulse (an

348

Opium .

ominous symptom always) was noticed in 3 , and in

most of them the intellectual faculties had become impaired if not repressed. An impoverished condi tion of the circulating fluid ( spanæmia ) was the domi

nant feature. Medicine availed nothing so long as the habit was continued ; after the withdrawal of the

cause recoveries proceeded rapidly .

28. This arrest of cerebral development and impair ment of function is confirmed by a report in “ Le

Globe” relating to the Paris Polytechnique. The boys having been classified as smokers and non

smokers, it was observed at the competitive exami

nations that the smokers invariably fell behind, and that the disparity increased at every successive or deal. Jolly makes a similar report of a school at which the usage had been to furnish cigars to the

élèves gratis. In the public school at Fall River, 1856 , the practice of smoking even to inebriation had become so notorious as to call for interposition

from the supervisory authorities. The military schools of France are henceforward secured against similar evils by an imperial decree issued in 1862, which

excludes tobacco altogether. 29. If in view of the various liabilities the novice

has come to the resolve he will have his tobacco , contra bonos mores though it be, it were worth while for him à l'entrée to heed certain monitions. To begin , there is a choice of mode. The chewing of the quid (an invention ascribed to Marlborough )

would be the least objectionable method but for two considerations, the excessive ptyalism ensuing and

Tobacco and Coca Contrasted with Opium . 349 the occasional intermingling of the contaminated saliva with the gastric mucus from the act of swallow ing, and the continuous using all the day long with out interval or break . There was a child in Portage Co.,Ohio ,thatbecame permanently wedded to tobacco

from the practice themother had pursued of putting a plug into its mouth from time to time to stop the

crying. In France chewing is said to be on the in crease, while the practice of snuff-taking so much favored once by the “ grand monarque” is evidently

on a rapid decline. 30 . Of all the ways in which tobacco is familiarly used that in the form of the cigarro is by large odds the most detrimental.

That the smoke is a vehicle

for the narcotine conducting the poison directly to the lungs, was proved in an analysis made by Mel sens, which rendered 3 per-cent.

The essential oil

with which the smoke is loaded is not only conveyed directly to the air-cells, but is forced in furthermore as with a high -pressure power. People should do their smoking as they did in Aubrey' s day when the

material was worth its weight in silver, or better, somewhat à -la -Turque, having a few whiffs at inter

vals with coffee between , “ taking their time” as in the song is enjoined, but not like a group of Sacs suspending at intervals for a lift at the whiskey -jug. 31. When Columbus carried .home with him what

he had found on touching at Cuba (Irving), the cigar, he was certainly altogether unaware he was about in troducing among his friends what should prove to the

Iberia of old her worst domestic enemy ; and yet 30

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Opium .

from that day to now her dons have been dwindling and declining all thewhile. Says Lizars of the Span ish troops engaged in the Peninsular war, “ These men (pigmies rather) so stinted in stature and wasted as if to skeletons, without energy, without efficiency ,

were sure to turn up everywhere with the inevitable cigar always in the mouth .” What opium has done for the colony in Malacca planted by DaGamawould

appear to have been accomplished by the cigarro in similar results upon the race at home. Not out of “ such stuff” were wrought those dauntless adven turers the companions of Cortez and Pizarro. A similar decay as evidenced in a decreasing stature

appears to be progressing in the French capital. The number of cigars used here in 1852 was 200 millions, in 1867, 710 millions; an increase in fifteen years of 372 to 1. A notable decrease in height as in

the physical stamina is observable in the Parisians generally.

32 . Among the forms of organic disease often traceable to the cigar more particularly , is that per petually irritating and tediously wearing disease, al buminuria . There was Mr. C ., late sheriff of the Co. of N . Y ., a man of severely abstemious habits in the general, who seldom ate a child 's portion of food or

slept over four hours of the night, to whom tobacco was meat and drink in the literal sense. Indeed he was wont to smoke himself to sleep after getting into

bed, and to have the cigar in early morning again to smoke himself awake upon . He drank no liquor,

not the mildest; but whenever and wherever seen ,

Tobacco and Coca Contrasted with Opium . 351 whether sitting at his office-desk or in his wagon on

the street, there he was, recognizable by the cigar in a corner of his mouth if by no other sign. His daily

consumption was (so himself used to say ) forty cigars ; an intimate friend (that was, Mr. W .) reckons the

average was twenty. Fatal renal disease eventuated here.

33. Well were it for all sinokers would they give · the cigar the congé altogether. Sichel has remarked a waning of the virile function under its use, and Segalas gives a case. A young man had been in the way of using for some time at the rate of twenty cigars a day, but perceiving by -and -by a declining

of the venereal appetite he broke off suddenly , came out right, and in due time married.

34. Smoking by the pipe is less injurious, only be cause there is for the time a less rapid consumption of material and in less amount altogether. The Irish

people (their women too, very many of them ) follow this fashion and without apparent detriment. No race most certainly is more remarkable for instances of longevity. The pipe nevertheless has its abound

ing victims.

The Turks (who use it exclusively)

according to M . Fievée present a leaden hue of skin

and a senile appearance,much in contrast with their ancestral type as it was under the reigns of the Mahomets and the Amuraths. Opium besides has had a large share in bringing about the national deterioration . The pipe is to be seen everywhere

in Germany too, and its mischiefs are very palpably indicated in what might properly be termed an ad

352

Opium.

ventitious national physiognomy. In Eastern Asia however there is seemingly less of constitutional

perversion than the excess of use there would make presumable . Not in China alone is smoking a daily practice with the entire family , but in Siam also nearly

or quite everybody has his pipe, and the children among the rest their bozee, and without any obvious detriment (Bruguière). This relative immunity may find some explanation in the quality of the article, for tobacco in whatever part of Oriental land grown

is milder in its operation from having less nicotine in combination .

35 . For the sex, smoking has not been limited to Spain alone and her ancient dependencies. In the day of Charles II. and after, women used the pipe in England and also on the Continent; now the

cigarette is of ton, but in the fashionable café or in the rich mansion rather than in the vulgar cabaret

or the peasant's cot. Traces of this general infection wemay see here at home among our other fashions

of “ fresh importation .”

The cigarrita , common

enough on Andalusian and Lusitanian soil away eastward and on the Pacific shore among the fair Limanese señoras, may be observed nearer by also ,

as it fumes forth from some jalousie on a sultry after noon in the dog-days, at almost any one of our American Baden -Badens. 36 . Of the various forms into which the leaf is

transformed, the least noxious to the individual, and certainly the least obnoxious in use to the unfamil iarized spectator — the usage (“ that most horrid one" )

Tobacco and Coca Contrasted with Opium . 353 of snuff-dipping always excepted — is snuff undoubt edly. The practice of snuff-taking — a privilege ap pertaining to our grandmothers by prescriptive and

indefeasible right - has been by no means restricted

to them . Napoleon for instance took rappee by the handfuls. Of the gentlemen bearing the gold -headed cane, Dr. Radcliffe was as liberal in snuff for himself

as in recipes for his patients. 37. For improving the aroma there is a practice in

Paraguay of commingling thematé. Valerianic ether , as is asserted , has recently been found to give to American tobacco the proper flavor of the genuine Habana. For antagonizing the noxious element that

inheres in tobaccos of every description less ormore , various devices, some of chemical, others of merely mechanical adaptation, have been put to experiment, and with measurable advantage. In Moslem lands

coffee, so freely used as an accompaniment of the chibouque, has much credit as being a supposed

neutralizer. Any virtue pertaining to coffee may be

owing (though in part only ) to the tannin which is a constituent of the berry . Dr. Williams of Chicago says , our native Indians combine with the leaf the

inner bark of the swamp-dogwood (Killikinnick ), which abounds in tannin . Himself has suggested a method of using this astringent, by placing at the bottom of the pipe-bowl a fragment of sponge satu rated with a solution . Any plan however that

should impair in any degree the aroma would be condemned. Dr. Thompson of Nashville having re

peatedly experimented on himself and on others says, 30 *

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Opium .

that the inner bark of the sassafras-tree intermixed after drying operates as a counter-astringent not only against present symptoms but as a remedial agent also by a rétroactive determination . He suggests in reference to the cigar that a few drops ofthe essential oil should be applied to the fire-end before lighting. 38. The Turkish pipe is fashioned after this manner:

A bowl for holding the tobacco , conical or funnel shaped somewhat, dips by its apex into a water receptacle , from which latter cavity proceeds the tubular stem for the subsequent transmission of the

smoke, so that every whiff must necessarily first per meate the fluid in the cup. By this percolatory pro cess the smoke is effectually filtrated, the oil being detained in the water, upon the surface of which it immediately collects itself. The Zulus have a some

what more elaborate though not more effective con trivance, the tube consisting of intercommunicating sections. The meerschaum challenges public favor, upon the very doubtful claim that the clayey material

incorporated exerts an absorptive power over the oil through some elective affinity common to the two.

This chemical idea, certainly a very pretty one theo retically viewed, is well-nigh spoiled in the practical

working, seeing that the smoke, the vehicle of the now volatilized oil, cannot afford to tarry long enough for this " principle of natural selection ” to get fairly into working order .

39: There is an advantage in length of pipe. A three- foot reed is used by the Sioux Indians ; in

Turkey the stem is often twice as long. A tube

· Tobacco and Coca Contrasted with Opium . 355 ( flexible for convenience according to Oriental fash

ion ) has this very superior recommendation, that the smoke in traversing a long passage has time to cool down so considerably that the oil becomes condensed

in good measure to be precipitated temporarily upon

the interior surface. The bore could readily be cleared from time to timewith the aid of a small glass-syringe.

That the oilwhich impregnates the smoke is certainly so deposited in part, appears evident from a case re ported by Maurice in the London Lancet.

A boy

seven years old at the time having herpes upon one side of the neck , an extemporized salve made from the interior scrapings of an old tobacco -pipe ( so much only as would lie on the point of a penknife)

was laid over the vesiculated surface ; whereupon

and within half an hour there ensued various indi cations of poisoning, such as vertigo and excessive nausea, with vomitings. Under the use of ammonia and coffee however the patient revived . This nausea is of the most persistent disposition , and the more depressing that vomiting is so backward in coming

to its relief. The writer is here reminded of a trial

once made at smoking an entire “ Principe.” A nausea far surpassing that in sea - sickness with enteritic cramps, which might have been relieved

by a retching that would not come when called , persisted for twenty-four hours. 40. In conclusion and upon a summary review , after

balancing the indications and the non -indications for the habitual employment of tobacco and the advan tages and the disadvantages as carefully weighed,and

356

Opium.

more than all, in view of the tenacity of grasp with which the appetite once tutored cleaves to the man

thereafter,may it not be in accordance with the dic tates of a forecasting prudence to renounce the cigar

with its alternate the pipe also ; and as for the quid, to chew no longer but rather to eschew that same? after valor discretion “ He that fights, and runs away,

May live to fight another day ; But he that in the field is slain , Himself shall never fight again .”

41. Coca, or Peruvian Tobacco. This has been to the aboriginal Cuzcan what tobacco proper has been

to the Aztec. At the epoch of the Conquest entire plantations were sometimes devoted to the culture (Pöppig). The leaves are chewed, or else made into

an infusion. “ Vamos a coquear - let us have our coca-lunch ,” is an every -day call, and the ladies have

their coca -tertulias besides. So urgent is the passion for the leaf that even boys will stray away solitarily into the forests to hunt it up. The physiological effect is to stay appetite and give tone to muscle , while it helps the digestive process and obviates con stipation (Mantegazza ). The inveterate coca -eater carries nevertheless something , though in characters less defined , of the aspect that marks the ofiyune.

The fact that longevity is not sensibly reduced must in explanation be imputed, certainly in part at least, to themildness and equability of the climate pertain ing to the table- lands of Peru so signally propitious to the conservation of health and native vigor. Cases

Tobacco and Coca Contrasted with Opium . 357 of reclamation from the habit (as is true of opium ) are rare.

42. The coca has been turned to useful service in a variety of ways. The chasqueros (couriers or runners in the service of the Incas) provisioned themselves

for their journeys upon the same and nothing else.

The alimentive and supportive power of the plant was put to the test and in a memorable way at the siege sustained by the city of La Paz in 1781. Provisions having got short, the garrison were subsisted through severalweeks after upon coca exclusively. In contrast

with the poppy the leaf is devoid of soporific power. 43. In the Puna region the natives are wont with the help of this roborant to transport burdens over mountain -heights, like as do the hunters of Mongolia

sustained by another stimulus, arsenic (Macgowan). Von Tschudi to test the virtues in his own person , having provided himself one day with a stock for a mountain -journey was able to traverse defiles fourteen thousand feet above the sea -level, and without ex

periencing any of the impediments usually felt from an atmosphere very much attenuated. The narrative by this traveller concerning a native employed by him to do some trench -cutting under his immediate inspection , a work continued through four days and

upon no other refreshment than coca and water by day and a two hours' sleep at night, seems somewhat marvellous to the vision of soberer people who have

not been so privileged to travel and “ see the world .” “ I cannot say how the truth may be

I tell you the tale as you there may see.”

CHAPTER XXVII

COFFEE AND TEA BT CONTRAST WITH OPIUM. - C 'est tr Sri Caie, dom : Taimable " quem Sans altérer la tese épanocit ie czu ; E : je crois, de gére éproutant le reveil,

Boire dans chaque fonetze es rayon de soleil." - DELILLE " The Muses" friend, Tea doh my fancy ad, Repressing vapors which the head invade. _ WALLER .

1. Not Waller's muse alone, but his that sang of

“ rural sights and sounds” felt the vapory inspiration from “ The bubbling and lond -hissing urn , the cups

That cheer but not inebriate." *

2. Dr. Sigmond assigns to tea a very remote tra ditional date, earlier by a good deal than belongs to

Lo -Yu, an emperor who about A.D . 600 wrote of the plant in these terms: “ Tea tempers the spirits and dispels lassitude, drives off drowsiness and awakens the perceptive faculties, and enlivens the whole intel lect to harmonious thought.” Tea antedates coffee

by a long way,and for aught appears it is the solitary casus omissus of the entire family of stimuli embraced in the index expurgatorius of legislative prohibition . * Note. Nevertheless , as if science must ever be at war with

poetry, there has been made out of the leaves a mild wine (Thudi chum ) .

( 358 )

Coffee and Tea by Contrast with Opium .

359

The reason is not obscure or doubtful; tea has en joyed the especial favor and patronage of the sex and their protection of course, even for aught that appears to the contrary from the first establishing in

Cathay of the “ long -staple” or “ long -twist” dynasty . About the epoch of the Great Fire, the year 1666 it was (the same with which the Plague terminated ), when tea on the first venture reached England.* In the American colonies “ the fame thereof” was first signalized under the patronizing auspices of a New

England Company known in their day as the “ Bos

ton Tea-party.” 3. Tea, the herbe divine (as once called), was ein ployed by Jonquet in 1657 against that many-headed

disease , scrofula . There is no beverage whatever to be named that is used so freely and on so frequent

and familiar occasions. The Chinese drink it, one

and all, as habitually as the Turk takes his coffee, and in lieu of cold water, accounting the latter as prejudicial to health (Speer).

There was one Cor

nelio Borromeo, a somebody that had had his birth

place (by some mistake evidently) somewhere outside * Note. Not until the introduction of tea among the people of England did ale as the common beverage at meals begin to decline. How liberally this (small-beer) was drunk at meals and by those of

immature years too is evident from a practice followed by Mrs. Susan nah Wesley, that “ mother in Israel," whose was a family of eighteen

children to care for, and who, while disciplining them according to the principle of “ temperance in all things," allowed them as soon as they had become old enough for being restricted to three meals to

sit at the dinner-table with the rest, and to drink of beer “ as much as they would ” (A . Clarke) .

360

Opium .

of China, who reckoned two hundred cups for the

day (the “ fine white-china cups” they were) as about the thing for a “ gentleman of leisure.” 4. What the palm has been to Syria and Africa and Oceania that has the tea -plant been to England and

other European countries — the daily invigorator of

the millions. Marvellously reviving and refreshing as after a hard ride or a long walk , it does in a man ner (and so Bocker found) answer in the place of food.

The Richardson party that made the ascent

of Pike's Peak in 1860 , 13,500 feet up, having got short in their provision of solids after being three days out, found during the last night of their encamp

ment a most comfortable restorative in their tea,

which if not quite equal to brandy for such emer gency proved undeniably a first-class substitute. 5. Unlike opium , tea is antisoporific in its opera tion,* and observably aphrodisiac too but feebly so

in comparison with phosphorus, cannabis, or arsenic. 6 . Coffee (vigueur, as one interpretation goes), the Lethe that soothes the agitated nerves , the care-defy ing beverage (dissipateur de tous les soucis — De

Sacy), the intellectual drink that brings up the

mental faculties to their normal equilibrium — is the drink that operates by a harmonizing energy upon the sensitive faculties ‘ind the vitalizing forces, neither

urging the powers into an undue strain through over * Thus Theophrastus Bibaculus : “ I, puer, I, Theæ confestim pocula misce, Urget enim solitus lumina nostra sopor."

Coffee and Tea by Contrast with Opiuin .

361

stimulation nor endangering reaction and depression when the stimulus has been withdrawn (Cabanis ).

7 . Coffee was known to the Persians a thousand years ago (Mérat), and it appears further to have been indigenous to Kaffa, a province of Lower Abyssinia ,

whence it was carried by Chadeley to Aden towards the end ofthe fifteenth century (Saint-Arroman). An Arabian tradition refers the popularity early gained by the berry to a certain mollah , who as the story

goes, being oppressed with a habitual somnolency and yet concerned about his existing inability to per form properly the duties appertaining to his profession, betook himself to coffee ; and with such success that

he established a new fashion unawares. An independ ent tradition connects Sheik Omar and the country

of Yemen in historic relation with coffee. story is as allowable as the other.

Either

The article was

taken to Constantinople about twenty-five years after the first voyage of Columbus, but was not introduced into Java until a hundred years later than this. Thévenotmade it known in France about the middle

of the seventeenth century , and the patronage of Louis XIV . established its fame.

8 . Coffee is a food proper. Bruce speaks of the Gallas, a tribe who on an expedition across the Desert into Abyssinia were supported all the way upon a paste which consisted of the bruised berry com

pounded with butter. Caravans have traversed the same desolate region, subsisting upon coffee and dates alone. In the Overland journeys across the

Plains via Santa Fé, the pioneer-emigrants for Cali 31

362

Opium .

fornia whatever had been their previous habits found

the morning-cup as indispensable as was the bacon fry . So with the Belgian miner, who working as he does under a severe muscular tension the entire day, nevertheless sustains himself upon two litres of the

beverage with the addition of a very little bread and meat. Dr. Leven also observes that coffee fulfils the purposes of food ,by not only affording an economic

pabulum for tissue-repair, but also by retarding that subtle process of disintegration known as eremacausis,

and which is silently yet continually at work upon the bodily fabric. Early in the war of the Rebellion

when supplieswere irregular and the ration was often a partial one only , the soldiers instead of making an infusion of their coffee would use the powder as they

did tobacco to replenish the pipe with (Syme). 9 . Coffee may be drunk the more freely inasmuch as the process of elimination goes on with celerity. “ Invigorative to the body in the estimate of the

Turks as well as conducive to alacrity of spirits, it furnisheth food in itself and helpeth besides to the

digestion of other foods” (Sandys). Certain peculiar ities however wherein the two stimuli now being treated of differ the one from the other, require spe cification .

10. The alkaloids Theine and Caffeine, obtained from tea and coffee respectively , are in chemical con

stitution nearly identical. The proportion of theine

is about 374 per-cent. (Peligot), of caffeine somewhat less (Payen ). A distinctive element in tea , and of which coffee affords scarcely a trace , is a volatile oil.

Coffee and Tea by Contrast with Opium .

363

to the amount of 4 of 1 per-cent. (Mulder ), the same

to which Chambers ascribes that uneasy excitation ofthe nerves that intercommunicate with the stomach , as more particularly in tea -tasters after a long day's

work at sipping and snuffing. According to the testimony of some of our physicians in the interior,

not a few of our elderly women of the rural settle ments are pursuing the hazardous practice of carrying

tea loose in the pocket for the purpose of chewing, just as themen do with their tobacco. Tea certainly in its immediate action from excess of use preternatu rally exalts and deranges nervous action above coffee ; nevertheless this latter if habitually taken to an im

moderate extent is harmful, leading to vertigo, severe disturbance of the central digestive organ , and an almost invincible insomnia .

II. Coffee, less aphrodisiac than tea is equally antisoporific, and it is what especially gives to the

midnight oil-flame a livelier glow as wanes the light of the pale moon . It also confers a more sustained power of endurance than tea, imparting to the di

gestive function a greater activity and obviating in some degree constipation . Coffee is a great appe tizer at sea. The captain of the ship no sooner reaches the quarter -deck in the grey of the morning than he calls for his cup (a strong infusion without admixture), and this sustains him for an hour or

more until breakfast. The Texas planter (Dr. Ashbel Smith ), before breathing the pestilent fog that over hangs the river's bank until lifted by the morning sun , observes the same precaution .

364

Opium .

12 . Coffee has found favor more in countries along the Line ; tea suits better the temperaments of extra tropical latitudes. In reference to such affinities coffee has been denominated the Catholic beverage,

as being more congenial to peoples under the dominion of the imaginative and the passional influences ; tea

is accounted the Protestant drink , as being suited to sober reason and cool inquiry rather. The one cer tainly seeks the sun more ; the other affects the shade. 13. There is one particular condition of the system , that of extreme nervous mobility coupled with ex treme nervous adynamia , when the body is worn

down and the mind is bereft of energy altogether,and when all appetite for savory food even is gone and nothing is desired or reckoned as in any view longer desirable — a juncture when “ old port” comes in as a succedaneum and a succor, such as is to be found in

no other beverage. The case is as that of a dead man suddenly galvanized into full life again . 14 . Cocoa — Theobroma Cacao, and the same out of which the Mexican prepares his cacuatl — - less stimulative and less supportive than coffee — is per haps equally useful as a nutrient ( Behrens). Occa

sionally is observed an idiosyncrasy of stomach more

tolerant of this than of either of its congeners. Car dinal Richelieu on changing from coffee to cocoa was cured of a melancholy that had long been settled upon him . The superaddition of cream subserves a

double advantage, increasing the richness and the flavor. 15. The sophistications of teas under the various

Coffee and Tea by Contrastwith Opium .

365

transmutations they are made to undergo, first at the foreign marts and again after transmission to our side of the Ocean , are as ingenious and diversified as they are deceptious and pernicious. That there are s

green teas of a class by themselves is allowed, but then all of low grade are made such out of the black

species by the combination of coloring agents (green copperas and gypsum to the amount of a half of one

per -cent. perhaps, or,what is far worse , arsenite of copper), and by various other manipulatory processes, and all for the benefit of the American market in

special (Fortune, Warington).

The Chinese say of

us Yankees, that “ we like to have our tea to look

uniform and pretty.”

They themselves use no green

tea whatsoever, but keep to the black sorts . Who ever at this day and here at home drinks the imported green teas may be set down as being somewhat green himself ; whatever she drinks the black infusion, may perhaps find a grain of comfort in the assurance that she is drinking of a something she knows not ex

actly what. Why not keep to coffee altogether, es pecially when we can get and do get the pure ? Far

better to have at our table-gatherings, in view of health and of vivacity of spirits too, the single glass of dilute claret, than any Hyson or Pekoe whose

names and qualities you see so vauntingly paraded before the public gaze in the thousands of handbills daily set afloat.

16 . As for coffee pure while yet in the berry , that we may procure to our full content. Two favoring considerations insure us against attempts to foist upon 31 *

366

Opium.

the market any spurious articles ; the fact that the aggregate production is so excessively large and that prices are so moderate, and this other, that falsified s substitutions for the genuine are well-nigh precluded altogether. Rem superaret opus — the business would not pay.

17 . The two conditions prerequisite to a cup of coffee worthy the name are these; the berry selected must have been thoroughly matured before gathering, and again it should be browned equably and to a light cinnamon -color only , and then only partially exhausted and by infusion - for so they do in Yemen (Palgrave).* In Siam and Sumatra, and with the

people of Brussels also , the coffee -leaf, gathered and cured while yet immature to be subjected afterwards to some preparatory process, is held in high estima tion , being thought to occupy an intermediate place between coffee and tea as combining the flavors of both . * On this point the doctors of Salernum are perceived to be in full

accord with their confrères (barring the anachronism ) of Arabia Felix . Their precept regarding the selection and the treatment of the berry is, “ Hoc cape selectum , validum , mediocriter ustum ."

CHAPTER XXVIII. LEGISLATION AGAINST STIMULI. “ Non expectatis Antæus viribus hostis

Sponte cadit,majorque accepto robore surgit.” — LUCAN . “ No written law can be so plain , so pure, But wit may gloss, or malice may obscure.” — DRYDEN.

1. In chapters xxiii and xxiv the endeavor has been made to show , that asbetween opium on the one side and alcoholics on the other the balance of evils pre

ponderates towards the former ; and furthermore that these two classes of stimuli hold towards each other

a certain reciprocal correlation, so that the interdic tion of either will very certainly be promotive of the

extension of the other. In our schemes for legislating out one enemy we must be wary of legislating in another and greater.

2. Upon a review of what has been accomplished in the past, whether from blind impulse and arbi trary decree or through the more regular operation of statutory enactment against Opium , Alcohol and

Tobacco, that triumvirate of physical potentates now comprehending under their united sway or in severalty

the continents and the islands of either hemisphere , no policy contemplating the future should command our respect which presumes to ignore the monitions of experience.

( 367)

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Opium.

3. As pertaining to sumptuary legislation upon ar ticles used as habitual stimuli, two schemes having

as professed the sameultimate end in view butwork ing by diverse methods, viz. the Prohibitive system and the Regulative plan, have shared a divided advo cacy and support. “ The tree is known by its fruit" — let us pause and ponder. 4 . Prohibitory legislation quoad hujus, so far forth, must be pronounced a failure. In 1582 Schah Abbas with all the prestige attaching to a great name and a

magnificent diadem was forced to recede from his decree against opium , because of an epidemic inter vening which threatened reactionary consequences involving even the throne. In 1796 Kien -Long or dained as a penalty against opium -eating confiscation of goods, to which was added the bastinado, and as a final measure decapitation . Taou -Kwang who

succeeded to the throne in 1830 soon revived the effete laws of his predecessors, but vainly ; for of what account is official steadfastness when set in opposition to the seductive incentives from private greed ? Nine years after this, 1839, there was issued by this samemonarch that famous “ Edict of Confis

cation ,” which consigned in one swoop all the opium then at the hongs to thebottom of the sea, and which

decree Commissioner Lin (as was believed at thetime) so perseveringly and faithfully carried out. Subse

quently but not long after Hiú -Naitsé, President of the Sacrificial Court at Peking, on advising the legal ization of the traffic with the view of bringing the same under legislative control (a suggestion forwhich

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he afterwards suffered a degradation of rank ), was met by the emperor with this reply : “ How can I go

to meet the shades of my imperial father and of his ancestors , so long as these dreadful evils, the cultiva tion and the trade,are allowed to remain unremoved ?" Ki- Tsiang his successsor in 1846 was found upon in terviews with the English negotiators more pliant

and more “ open to conviction.” In the second year of his reign the sale was legalized (Homans) ; and now , as the Rev. Mr. Doolittle says, " At this very day opium is an article of merchandise, as legally

purchasable in China and on as cheap terms too as is the gospel that goes along to bear it company." Twenty - five years ago Surgeon Smith observed in Pulo Penang that penal enactments had failed to stem the tide, and that thefts, robberies, and murders too, were being perpetrated again and again and increas

ingly in numbers, so impetuous and uncontrollable does this perverted appetite for opium -fumesbecome. Whether the recent decree, that of 1869, issued by Hung- Fund the regent of the kingdom will turn out any thing else than a mere brutum fulmen we must

wait to see, possessing our souls in patience meantime as best we may.

The opium -culture indeed, as a

productive interest, is each successive year absorb ing the land and the labor of the kingdom beyond a precedent. Hashisch appears to have attracted governmental interference only in a solitary instance,

Egypt, the year 780 of the Hegira . 5. In Rome at an early day there was an inter dictory statute which applied to the women exclu

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sively . The emperor Domitian prohibited the rearing

of the vine, and Carthage forbade not only the use

of the liquor but the planting of vineyards altogether. Mohammed denounced wines yet out of reference to climate mainly (so Montesquieu says), for indeed the

Prophet himself was not a total-abstinent, being wont to partake though sparingly of the light wines of his native region. Schah Abbas made an ordinance that

forbade wine, which he annulled again ere long find ing that he was only substituting the coquemar in its place (Pietro de Valle ). Charlemagne, the contem

porary of Haroun -al-Raschid (the Just), punished drunkenness by scourging, which was to be inflicted privately in the first instance, publicly for the second offense ; this failing, the decree was death . Never theless, to encourage the use of ale he had a conven tion of brewers assembled at Frankfort about the year 8oo for the purpose of having them instructed

in their art. A " brewers ' academy” has been pro

posed for ourselves. Argendus of Scotland ruled that judges must abstain from wine on pain of death

(Boethius). Abdulrahman of Soudan in 1795 affixed to drunkenness the death -penalty . An Act of Wil

liam and Mary pronounced the manufacturing and vending as well as the excessive drinking a misde meanor, with the penalty of a fine and imprisonment. The confiscation and destruction of wine in the pack age undertaken in Persia years since (Ker Porter),

foreshadowed in results what was to be expected of a policy inaugurated in Connecticut not many years ago.

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6 . There is a saying of a Mohammedan writer, that enjoins upon the Faithful to “ honor the palm because

of its having been formed out of the clay that re mained over when the creation of Adam had been completed.” Tippoo Sultan of Mysore in the latter part of the last century , not having the fear of God,

much less the fear of Mohammed before his eyes, ordered by decree that all the palm -trees of the country should be exterminated from the soil. This monstrous edict (as is reported) was literally carried

out. In Norway some years ago a more humane and reasonable policy was undertaken. The practice had been for each family to manufacture for itself its two or three barrels of whiskey every year. The Storthing made an ordinance forbidding distilling by householders, and the result was a better liquor in the market and a reduction upon the amount of drunkenness. 7. Tobacco . Legislation aimed at the weed has been followed by corresponding results. Urban VIII. for bade snuff during divine service on pain of anathema,

and Innocent XII. also threatened excommunication

against all such as should presume to bring the ob noxious stuff within the verge of Saint Peter's ; Bene

dict XII. a hundred years later not only carried a snuff-box himself, but permitted the faithful also to

refresh themselves during the tedious services of the hour. Pius IX . of to - day the Infallible (sic visum ) takes his snuff à son gré beneath the very dome of the Vatican .

8. Schah Abbas I., so valiant upon wine while

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stigmatizing opium fiercely, appears to have been of that school of reformers who “ Compound for sins they are inclined to By damning those they have no mind to :" .

the second Abbas, on entering upon a campaign

against the Khan of Tartary, issued an army-regula tion which denounced slitting of the nose to any

soldier who should be caught using tobacco ; and this failing the offender was to be roasted. Michael

Feodorovitch Grand Duke of Moscovia threatened the bastinado, to be followed for repeated offenses by lopping off the nose or else by death . Selim II. decreed beating and a fine ; Mahomet IV ., equally severe as a man but more reasonable as a ruler,

placed his objection on hygeienic grounds, an im paired virility consequent upon the use .

9 . The “ Counterblaste," that prodigy ofphilosophic

description in miniature, was aimed (but in seeming only ) against the new -comer as such , when really

the missile was intended for the great explorer who

had just introduced tobacco into England, and of whose renown James (whose own reputation in so far as detached from prerogative was so slender and weak ) had become intensely envious. In the golden age, the period of the Dutch dynasty, when

Wouter van Twiller of fuliginous fame with his jolly burgomasters ruled in Manna-hata, smoking and nod ding and nodding and smoking again and again , and when trumpeter Antony was wont to wake up

the sleepers all the way round from Spyt-den -Duy

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vel to " the Hook," then the land had rest, until

“ another king arose,” that audacious innovator upon

prescriptive privilege,the Testy William . He it was that issued an edict proscribing tobacco in any and

every form throughout New Netherlands. Now raged that stormy controversy between the Long pipes and the Shortpipe faction threatening a revo lution in the State, and which was composed in so

lucky a conjuncture by the intervention of a third party, the Quids,* headed by one Robert Chewit. With this tiers -état (as it was) resided thereafter the “ balance of power,” that foundational juste - milieu

which has since become in European diplomacy a corner-stone. f 10. In the year 1639,by authority of the “ Virginia Assembly" there went out a decree , that all the to

bacco then standing in cultivated fields should be dug up and exterminated ; and yet at this day there

are towns and districts under this same jurisdiction whose sole resource for a livelihood is the tobacco plantation and the factory.' Twenty -five years from the above date , in 1664 that is, the “ General Court”

of Connecticut ordained as follows: “ No person under the age of 21 shall take away Tobacko, until * Note.

This identical party (the Quids, that is to say ) are be

lieved — and reasonably if conjecture be allowed in evidence — to have been a living impersonation of that metaphysical abstraction

and somewhat dubious entity created by the Schoolmen, the Ter tium Quid . :

† The History of New York , by Diedrich Knickerbocker, book iv - 7, concerning the Pipe-Plot.

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Opium.

he hath brought a certificate from ye hands of some

one who is approved of knowledge and skill in

physique that it is useful for him , and furthermore that he hath a lycense from ye Courte for ye same. Penalty , sixpence for each and every offense.” 11. Neither has coffee eluded altogether the sharp eye and the strong arm of law . At Stamboul two

hundred and fifty years ago Amurath IV ., just as the Amurath his predecessor had done, ordered

the extirpation of the coffee -trees from every field in his realm . Coffee-houses were set up in Eng

land some time in the reign of the second Charles, but having been reported to the government as being novelties of a questionable character they were adjudicated upon by the “ Twelve Judges,” the referees in the matter. The report made was, that

“ The trade might of itself be innocent, but if con ducted to the nourishing of sedition and the scandal

izing of great men , why then the houses might be come a nuisance, to be abated accordingly.” There

was asseveration and testimony of a very different complexion as contained in the “ Women's Petition " of 1676 . “ Coffee has despoiled the men of their virile power and rendered them as arid as the sands of Arabia . If the fatal taste be persevered in , the prospect is the descendants of our robust ancestors

will degenerate into miserable pigmies and apes." 12. In view of all this formidable array of penal

legislation how stands the summation of the record ? At this very day over and above the 3,000,000,000 pounds of Tea consumed by 600 ,000,000 of people and

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the 220,000,000 pounds of Coffee and Cocoa to meet the demands of 200,000,000 * of persons, 700,000,000

of individuals use up 25,000,000 pounds of Opium (two-thirds of which appertain to China alone), 200,000,000 and more areHashisch -eaters, 865,000,000

poundsof Tobacco are distributed among 800,000,000 of consumers (Paris Figaro) ; and as for alcoholic

liquors, there is an aggregate produce every year, enough if collected into one sea to keep afloat the united navies of the world. Such in the retrospect have been the fruits of prohibitory legislation . We

may strive and vainly strive to overturn the laws of the material world ; nomore can we bind and restrain the impulses that govern human action . “ The thing that hath been (on this line of expectation certainly )

is that which shall be.”

As Pascal saith in a certain

place, “ Quand nous voyons un effet arriver toujours

demême, nous en concluons une nécessité naturelle.” 13. The wise legislator recognizes both the facts of

history and the deductions of science; the unballasted enthusiast, urged forward by a zeal something other

than a “ zeal according to knowledge,” would oppose to intemperance of one species intemperance under

some other guise but no less damaging and repre

hensible. Excess it was that Moses punished (vide Deut. xxi-21), thus recognizing evil as a principle intimately inhering in the very nature of man and ineradicable therefore, yet resistible in a degree ; the

“ higher law ," confounding evil per se with evil per

accidens (the “ post hoc ergo propter hoc" argu * 500,000,000 — WALTON .

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ment), holds legitimate uses responsible for inconse quential abuses, and so would buttress morality with

statutory enactments drawn from the civil law (the tious adherence to the right and an enlightened self

" vi et armis” argument), rather than upon a conscien

interest growing out of it. The " drum -trumpet-jews harp” ordinance* of its day (if it ever had a day), severely restrictive as it obviously was and puerile in aim as upon superficial observation it may seem , had

for its authorization the all-sufficient plea, the argu * Note. One might search the Codex Justinianus (that fountain

of European jurisprudence) through and again,and search in vain for a statute or ordinance better suited to a present exigency than was that same one alluded to in the text. The Puritan of our early Colo nial times — “ With face and fashion to be known For one of sure election — "

was an ascetic indeed, but ofnecessity rather than of choice ; stupid and doltish he certainly was not, whether from necessity (the neces sity of his nature) or from choice, i.e . from a grovelling proclivity of disposition . He accepted without question the doctrine of “ irresist

ible grace," but then he had besides great faith in the virtue of gun powder.

He comprehended his position upon due reflection and

accommodated himself to his surroundings, in firm reliance on fore. ordained “ particular providences.” In the days when the farmer with his sons (and wife too probably , for they must all keep together ) went into the cornfield with the hoe in one hand and a musket in

the other , and when the stillness of the deep night-watches was scarcely otherwise interrupted than by a screech from the prowling

owl or a whoop from the prowling savage, there was no time for giving attendance on “ music and dancing.” The trumpet sounded the larum -call, the drum encouraged the armed band in their advance to the fierce encounter; for the jewsharp, that was an innocent play .

thing that would serve for amusing the children.

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ment of stern and inexorable necessity ; the one-idea philosopher is nowise alarmed at the threatening hur ricane provided he himself is secure from being caught

up in the whirl.* “ War to the knife,” (as Palafox

exclaimed, but in a righteous cause well worthy his steel), devastation even to desolation as in a Smo lensko campaign , if he can but urge on the havoc yet provide for a timely escape from the catastrophe

impending 14 . The American Temperance Convention, in their

session held at Chicago two years back , sounded the bugle -note for the encouragement and comfort of the

faithful, in the following manifesto of doctrine and purpose : “ The traffic in intoxicating beverages is a

political wrong, not capable of being regulated or restrained by any system of licensing whatsoever (where has a thorough and fair experiment under a

rigid municipal supervision been undertaken even for the first time? ) and that it demands for its

suppression effective regulated (!) prohibition by both State and National legislation .”

As if to look

two ways at once by putting on two faces,f the president of the association made the ex -cathedra declaration, that for carrying out their views in a practical way, “ moral force” and that only was con

templated.

15. That jealousy of privilege which so readily arouses the citizen to resist apprehended encroach * « Après moi le déluge.” Fr . Proverb. † “ Flare simul et sorbere haud facile est.” – TERENCE .

32 *

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Opiuin .

ments upon vested rights is not likely to accept in satisfaction any pledge that does not presuppose the

maintenance inviolate of good faith on the part of the legislator. As Dr. Cooley well observes, “ The inebriate rebels against what he regards as an inter ference both gratuitous in itself as well as unjust,

in view of his own individual fundamental rights ; and so his co -operation instead of being enlisted on the side of morality and reform is diverted to the party of the enemy. Something else than an exact ing submission to an obnoxious dogma is required

to accommodate the cravings of his nature, perverted though this be.” Even that which may be deemed right in itself as contemplated in the abstract view requires oftentimes a certain flexibility of construction in adaptation to a present exigency. Seeing we live in an imperfect world , or to take the idea as ex

pressed by Tully — “ Quoniam non cum

perfectis

hominibus vivitur” - in conducting our legislation

regarding the various stimuli in fashion, we are ad

monished from the experience of the past to trespass upon hitherto recognized privileges and usages with

an extreme caution and reserve. The publicly ex pressed sentiment on this point as entertained by a

conspicuous teetotaler of the day should command

careful attention. “ It must be confessed (he says), the expectation of sustaining prohibitory enactments against the liquor-traffic in general and the license

system in particular through the force of a ' bill of pains and penalties' in reinforcement of moral sua

sion , and all in a world so selfish, so blind, and yet

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379

so prone to casuistic dogmatism as is ours, is an idea altogether preposterous and futile.” 16 . Prohibition once declared the principle of law ,

monopoly must follow , with all its enticements to collusion and corruption on the part of officials now

so mightily tempted into secret acts of fraud. Is there any certain advantage to come of making the few rather than the many to be the custodians of the

public conscience and social morality , and if so where shall the ultimate supervision be reposed — “ Quis custodiet custodes ?” Armed prohibition coupled with limitations operating exceptionally and par tially , whether supported by a gens-d 'armerie proper

or by an armed constabulary as might be,would be even more obnoxious to animadversion and more

exasperating to the common apprehension than any system that excludes the very idea of toleration could

possibly become.

17. What amount of success is likely to be achieved in any attempt at forcible repression of the trafficking in any stimulus to be named, is foreshadowed in a manner by somerecent observations. In the face of the decree recently issued against the cultivation of opium in China, the lands in not a few of the prov

inces are being more and more exclusively given up with every coming year to the growing of the

poppy. As for the contraband trade, according to a correspondent of the London Times who is presumed to know whereof he affirms, smuggling is the rule and no longer the exception . Here in our own

country and especially in our cities, who does not

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Opium.

know that the demand upon the distilleries is ex haustless, and that in no period of the past was the

cry of the horseleech, “ give, give," more peremp

tory and loud than as at this very day ? China with a long-reach of sea-border to watch fails to repress the

illicit traffic in opium . Wehave a coast to look after four times as extensive. Sandy Hook and Nevisink and the rivers between the capes and the inlets to

the Sounds might be enfiladed with guardacostas, and the St. Lawrence frontier be barricaded as it were by a continuous chain of fortified posts along its parallel, nevertheless the coveted stimulus (Sei

gnette brandy or Tom -gin or London- dock port or vulgar Hock ) would readily find an entrance “ within the lines.” Opium in one or another of its forms

( suppose that placed on the prohibited list) would find assailable points far more abounding. A practice

not uncommon on the Northern Line is the furnish ing by the Canadians to their Yankee cousins when the latter are about to recross the border, with tiny packets of morphine convenient for the vest-pocket

or the fob , thus assisting the same to defray cur rent expenses in a saving of the duty -levy (Robbins). What makes the case worse is the pliability of offi

cials set to prevent all unauthorized negotiatings ; for few of such indeed there are whose integrity is not perceived to be vulnerable upon the proffer of a

reasonable douceur. So with paper-pledges, grips and signs-manual, and all the paraphernalia of scenic display ; all such sink into nothingness before the

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clamorous urgings of an insatiate and insatiable crav ing of appetite .

18 . Rather than persevere in a fight along the line of a debatable policy with but a dubious result in

prospect,might we not devise a course comporting more with an enlightened communal interest in seek

ing out meansand methods more conducible to feasi ble ends ? First, organize for the common protection a system of rigid inspection conducted upon purely scientific principles, that shall be sufficient by force

of heavy penalties to exclude from the market all im pure liquors,such as are now protected under spurious names and other false disguises. A policy like this would command the approbation and the support of nineteen persons out of every twenty in the com

monalty. Next establish a carefully matured license system that shall work to the discouragement of drunkenness at the shop and on the public street, by

the interposition of wholesome safeguards.

Take

Gothenburg for an illustration. Here is a town situ ated on the line of foreign travel, the by-word of Europe that was not many years since for its drunk enness and other demoralizing excesses abounding , but which now under the operation of a license-law

wisely constructed and faithfully enforced is become one of the best regulated and most orderly cities in Europe. The change (and it appears to have been a radical one) was effected in accordance with certain specific conditions : as that the profits arising from the sale of wines and spirits should be at a nominal

per-centage only , while upon coffee and tea (articles

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Opium .

peremptorily required to be furnished at every res taurant) the prices chargedwere to beleft unrestricted ; and furthermore that any sale of strong drink made

to a drunkard or to a child should subject the offender to a severe punishment. This new system was in augurated in 1864 ; the official returns rendered to the city council three years afterwards showed a re

duction of cases referable to excessive stimulation as entered in the police reports , to the extent of fifty -six per-cent.

19. No more effectual check could be put upon open drunkenness than by making the retailer of liquors directly responsible for damages accruing. Illinois

law holds the seller obligated for all pecuniary losses sustained whether by the individual sufferer or by the county as his almoner ; and further, upon complaint

made by the family,hands over the habitual inebriate to the custody of the supervisors of his municipality,

there to undergo a prescribed process for his reclama tion and restoration . In Philadelphia the habitual drunkard may upon proper complaint be committed to an appropriate asylum and there restrained of his liberty to the extent of a period of ninemonths at the

shortest. The laws of the State of New York place the offender upon proper complaint being made under

the control of a supervisor, so that his money and other property shall not be recklessly squandered.

Fines and other penalties going even to the seques tration of the stock in trade would operate in terrorem over the vendor; the disciplinary course pursued at the workhouse would exert in the prospective a cau

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383

tionary restraint upon the vendee. Somewhere in Russia there is or was an ordinance, requiring that every man whatever might be his social position high or low , who should have been arraigned before a

police -court and convicted of open drunkenness should be compelled to do a day's work on the high way , and so have an interval for getting back to a state ofmoral as well as of physical sobriety .

20. A principle of legislation and what only can

make legislation acceptable to the masses, be it di rected in whatever way and to whatever end , is this ;

that all enactments shall operate upon all classes of individuals equally and impartially . What may be appropriately designated as the principle of accommo

dation,has had much to do in the community by way of adjusting civil rights and privileges not only but in balancing and squaring the moralities besides. Excellent people enough there abound whose eyes

are ever towards the ends of the earth ,but who never seem to be sensible of any admonition to look nearer home. The Pythagorean ascetic for instance, whose text is the passage in Genesis which (apparently) ex cludes animal food from common use ( vide ix -4 ) - sup

pose that he should contend and insist that the beast of the forest no less than the civilized man shall be

accorded equal protection and immunity against vio lence and peril, or suppose thewater-drinker referring

to Adam of old as an authoritative example should urge that tea and coffee ought to go into a forced

exile , upon the plea that they are (as physical agents and in a physical sense ) “ corrupters of the youth ” —

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Opium .

Ah , voilà une autre chose ! it makes all the difference

in the world whether the gored ox is my property or yours.

21. Wherefore not encourage in our country , even

if for experiment only, a more extensive planting of the vine? Let vinous beverages be tabooed and a social ostracism be decreed against any and all such persons as refuse (whether upon conscientious grounds or for reasons less conscientious) to subscribe to the " touch not, taste not, handle not” precept as a cardi

nal dogma of orthodox morality, is there no cause for apprehending that some spirit other than the “ invisi ble spirit of wine” and of more questionable shape than that may enter in by some less detectable and

more convenient channel? The avalanche swaying upon its icy bed may peradventure by its preliminary

sharp crack announce the impending catastrophe to the hamlet below ; the earthquake with its heavy

rumble preceding may give to the sleeper timely warning to escape the crash of tottering walls ; the

subterranean river it is we have to dread,which swell ing with the cumulating waters from a thousand mountain - streams urges its way along below our feet

as impelled by a resistless pressure from behind , until no longer repressible it bursts the upheaving earth -crust, to overwhelm in its surge field and forest together.

CHAPTER XXIX. DEDUCTIONS.

“ Magna est veritas, et prævalet.” — ESDRAS. “ No argument like matter-of-fact is.” _ BUTLER.

1. Opium is exhilarant, roborant, inebriant, ano dyne, or toxic, as determined by physical condition and amount of dose . Laudanum is the most stimu lative, morphine the most sedative, the gum in mass

themost toxic. Quantity is no criterion for expected effect.

2. Under habitual use the imagination is let loose to the detriment of the judgment, and the will is chained down. The sensual propensities are held in check , while the sensuous element is exalted. The mind becomes engrossed with hallucinations and

relapses into the dreaminess of reverie.

3. The peculiar morbid influence, subtle and slow in the beginning , cumulates with the progress. The reaction determines primarily to the brain and the stomach , tọ ultimate in a general vitiation of the

organism and in a premature decrepitude. Hyper æsthesia, alvine torpor, perturbation of sleep, and venous congestions grow into prominent symptoms. 4. With vacillation of purpose there comes a sense ofmoral degradation ,and not unlikely a propensity to suicide ; or the opposite mental condition may obtain , 33

( 385 )

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Opium.

a paralysis of conscience, a torpor of the affections,

and a stolid indifference alternating perhaps with the recklessness of despair.

5. Opium - Literature — an outgrowth of a distempered imagination — is a maze as bewildering to the under

standing as it is dazzling to the eye of fancy. As saith the Preacher in a certain place, “ In the multi tude of dreams and many words there are divers

vanities.” To use a metaphor of Brandt, the opium philosophy craft is a “ stultifera navis , a ship freighted

with fools.” Whosoever embarketh therein , to him " vanity and vexation ofspirit" shallbe for recompense. 6 . Longevity is more liable to curtailment under the operation of adversative causes and conditions the rather,be they physical or mental either .

7 . For roborative energy imparted in the state of health upon special occasions of use and for the ex tent of therapeutic control over disease, opium is an

agent challenged by no corrival. Not “ the golden wedge of Ophir” could compensate for its loss. 8 . Degeneracy in some aspect very commonly

marks the offspring of the opium -eater,and organic cerebral decay, impaired intellect, and a constitutional

cachexia are predetermined fatalities .

9. Against the temptation to habitual use, neither individual constitution nor social condition provides

any certain immunity. In numbers the sex predomi nate, but from adventitious causes rather than from any inordinate proclivity . 10 . In a practical view it may be affirmed of the habit, that the same is virtually non -vincible.

The

Deductions.

387

physical cause of this permanence when once gener ated converts a fortuitous luxury into an abiding necessity . Dosing by gradual augmentations is the normal course of experience ; reductions upon estab lished measures are among the rarest of exceptions.

11. Reformation comes of no half-measures : total abstinence is the inexorable antecedent condition ,

the sine-qua -non . Good resolutions formed on the patient's part may be fostered and strengthened by

appeals to the sympathies , or discouraged and neu tralized by objurgatory reproof and rude denunciation. The sapling that would break in the grasp of a vio lent hand may be made to bend under a gentle force perseveringly yet gradually applied. 12. Tentative therapeia is not advisable : the phy

sician should ever be the supervisory counsellor. The Asylum secures all requisite control.

13. Thebaine, Cannabine, Ainylic Alcohol, and Nico tine, are the four toxic elements we have especially

to hold in apprehension , so mighty is their energy, so direful are their operations. Opium as compared with Alcohol is more fascinating and less controllable ; Cannabis, a more turbulent excitant, works a speedier exhaustion ; Tobacco , least imperious among them all, is less rebellious under attempted restraint. Tea as compared with Coffee is exhilarant but of more fugitive impression ; Coffee is themore conservative

and regulative of animal force. 14. Opophagia in the United States is a practice

rapidly gaining upon population, and in a ratio very considerably increasing as every successive year ar

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Opium .

rives. Prohibitory legislation , a stupendous failure

in the past,holds out no better promise for the future , in the growing diversion of the public mind (asmani fest in many of the agricultural districts) to the cul ture of the vine, do wenot already perceive auspicious

indications of an advancing day, when the land shall have become “ a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive-oil and honey,

that wemay live, and not die” ?

CONCLUSION. “ Brevitati nostræ præmium ut reddas, precor ;

Nam vita morti propior est quotidie.” — PHÆDRUS. “ Hitherto is the end of thematter.” — DANIEL.

1. “ The Opium -appetite (Dr. Parrish ), which even in the United States has attained stupendous di mensions, lying ambushed beneath the foundations

of health and happiness, has hitherto failed to com mand from medical writers more than a passing notice ; yet the doomed victims grope their way by thousands through their life of semi-oblivion, without a solitary ray to illumine the devious path , without one welcome voice to inspire any earnest resolutions towards resistance and self-conquest." 2 . The Poppy, a stranger that has migrated to our shores from the far-off land of the Orient sun ,though long since domiciliated in the florist's parterre, is fast

growing into a fireside-acquaintance, being as assidu ously fostered as though it were of our lares and

penates. We read, as they reach us from Flowery Dream -land, the marvels narrated about opium eaters and their antics, with an undefined curiosity ,

just as wewould listen to stories about the strange and wonderful rehearsed by some “ Pacha of Many 33 * (389 )

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Opium .

Tales ;" cherishing the confident self-assurance, that what the debauchee of the Old World “ rolls as a

sweet morsel under his tongue" shall be in the mouths of us novices here upon Columbia's soil as

the waters of Marah for bitterness. Pleasing illusion away in the vista of the dim distant, it fades to a vapory nothingness in the nearer view , dissolving as doth a diamond dewdrop under the touch of rosy fingered Aurora. In our simplicity we have fain be

lieved, that in the abyss created by narcotic stimuli

alcoholics had penetrated farthest down the chasm ; but to our surprise, nay our consternation , we are brought to perceive, that “ In that lowest deep a lower deep, Still threatening to devour us, opens wide.”

Verily “ the Philistines be upon, us."

Not alone

to the ungarnished shop in some secluded nook where the mahogany -tinted liquor is distributed across the counter among plebeians (“ fellows of the baser sort” ) is the dispensing of the subtle poison relegated and restricted ; many a snug packet of the cherished morphine drawn from the interior boutique

of the conniving pharmaceutist, finds through surrep titious procurement a safe transmission to the palatial

boudoir. In view of this gigantic evil thus looming above our horizon, how fervently and untiringly should our hearts with our lips give utterance to the petition “ LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION !”

ADDITIONAL MEMORANDA. PAGE 25, Sec. 4. The secret of the Nepenthes was derived from Polydamna, an Egyptian princess. Page 28, Sec. I. Pliny traces the poppy back to India (whence there would be a convenient migration to Persia and Anatolia ), as the original locality. Indeed, the Persians were familiar with the . plant half a century before its introduction into China ( Tavernier),

and with this account agrees the Pentzaou Chronicle of A.D . 1500. Page 43, Sec. 2. The purple poppy of the Rhine country has

preference with Aubergier and Fleming. Page 46, Sec. 9. Squibb 's “ Liquor Opii Sedativus" is a good sub

stitute for this and the rest. Page 54, Sec. II. The chandoo has this advantage over the crude gum , that it is marked by less sudor and itchiness , and less tendency

to constipation .

Page 65, Sec . 3. The secretions, abundant during the excitation , are repressed afterwards. The jaundiced hue comes of the bile with

which the biliary viscera are impacted, as Sprengel ſound. Page 69, Sec. 9. A shopkeeper in Cairo, Achin Ahoon , assured

Taylor, that “ so certainly as an inveterate eater breaks offhe dies.” Page 70 ,Sec. 12. Mrs. M . This woman began upon morphine about 1865. From being a burthen to herself, and to her family much more,

she is now rejoicing in what appears to be a complete recovery,effected in the course of July , 1870 . The main agentwas chloral, prescribed

for the night as an anodyne.

Page 79, Sec. 10. Dr. M . The case proved a failure at the last,and the end was painful and gloomy.

Page 99, Sec. 1, and page 143, Sec. 14. Dr. Barnes .

Page 100, Sec. 2. Dr. Black , of Tennessee, observed that the work

( 391 )

Additional Memoranda. 392 men in harvest-time complained of vertigo and other nervous dis turbances .

Page 108, Sec. 14. Convict, etc.

Page 111, Sec. 1. The Records of the Registrar-General's Office for the last thirty years confirm the observation (Elam ) . Page 118, Sec. 10. “ Telle racine," etc. Page 122, Sec. 18. M . Medicus, 1809, noted a similar practice among the mothers of the Rhine country, that of steeping poppy heads in milk to provide their infants with a quietive for the day . Lethargy and marasmus frequently ensued . In the Alsatian quarter of Paris the women are accustomed to give to their young children

during the period of dentition a syrupy decoction , to procure the

material for which they will pawn their last jupe (Ronchette). Page 141. Note. - Read The younger Mackintosh, etc., and housemaid 's ear, etc.

Dr. Brown was not an opium -eater in the technical sense. As if from some premonition of the end thatwas to come within two years;

he was urgent in giving to his Lectures the finishing touches prepara tively for the press. Page 143, Sec. 16 . Dr. Anstie had repeatedly experimented upon

himselfwith a grain-dose, finding it would not only dispel all long ing for food, but would besides diffuse throughout the body a sensa

tion of warmth and comfort. The influence lasted an hour to one

and a half, leaving no other impression than the sense of hunger he had begun with .

Page 144, Sec. 15 ,and page 171, Sec. 4. Wynn, etc. Page 153, Sec. 5. Asconcerning Homeopathyoranyothermedical dogma or doctrine, the author challenges no controversy here. Let the practitioner carry no equivocal ensign ,while he concedes to others that same liberty of choice he exacts for himself.

Page 157, Sec . 11. In China many cases are referable to the doc tors, who are accustomed to prescribe opium freely in the malarious

districts that abound.

Page 191, Sec . 8. A case worthy of commiseration . In October,

1890, H . having contracted a worrisome cough,with anorexia accom . panying,began to apprehend a fatal decline, and thereupon with the hope of allaying the bronchial irritation proceeded to augment anew

the doses of his narcotic . One night an extra quantity taken threw

Additional Memoranda.

393

him into a sleep,outof which he could not be aroused when morning had come. Page 200, Sec. 5. The emperormay have been moved to his course in view of the fatal addiction of a son of his, the heir -apparent. Page 212, Sec. 4 . Out of 150 cases received into hospital within two years prior to 1837, Dr. M . reckoned one-third of them as con

firmed curęs. Wine, iron and quinine, with a good dietary, were the

reliances. Amelioration would begin in seven to ten days. As an earnest of final success, he used to puthis patients on a probationary

trial of twenty-four hours . Dr. Dudgeon , in his practice upon the Chinese, was less fortunate. Out of 500 patients admitted into Shang

hai Hospital during three years, he found few only got reclaimed

beyond relapse, even when months had intervened . Exaggerations. — Writers and reporters, professional and others, are

suspected by the public sometimes of " drawing the bow at a venture." In this conclusion , however , there is a general agreement, that when

the shock of the wave does come, it carries under body and mind both .

Page 229, Sec. 3. In India the hakeemshave undertaken to super sede the use by the substitution of nux vomica, going even to scruple doses.

Page 258,Sec. 8. Satyavrata, etc. St. Cyril says, that the vine abounded in parts of Egypt, but every where barley was the resource of the poor. That the Nile region was a wine-producing country is inferable from the expression (Psalms 1xxx - 8 ), “ Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt.”

Page 262, Sec. 13. A sculpture at Nineveh represents the king's cup-bearer as bearing in his hand a colander for straining the squeezed grapes on presentation (Layard ). The Kuràn describes Paradise as abounding in wine, but of the unfermented alone (Sale). Page 268, Sec. 22. How early distillation was known in the East

is notascertained. Certain it is that 2000 years back Tae-King laid

a prohibition upon tsew , an inebriating liquor of some sort ( Tcheou Long ).

Page 269, Sec. 23. Alcohol is composed of oxygen , hydrogen and carbon , being technically a hydro-carbon . According to Liebig 's view it furnishes respiratory food only , and not plastic material. Page 271, Sec. 24 . Vinage is the fortifying of wines by an admix

394

Additional Memoranda .

ture of brandy. Pure wine, says Mulder, cannot exceed 17 per-cent.; Madeira and Sherry scarcely go beyond 16, a number which Dr. Gorman reduces to 12 . Bordeaux and Rhine stand at 7.3 as a max

imum ,but Medoc clarets rate as high as 9.25. Angelica of California

is of 15 per-cent. Methylic (not amylic) spirit,together with another the butylic as developed in impure wines, is thus distinguished by Rabateau : “ When I drink at home a litre of pure wine I feel per

fectly comfortable ; but when in Paris I take a meal at a restaurant, with half as much only of the common wine such as the cabarets afford , I am seized with a strange brutalizing stupor, as if the head

were compressed by a tight bandage.” There was a gentleman nevertheless known to Richardson , ninety years old , who had used

methylated alcohol for his beverage a number of years. Dr. Day speaks of a patient who had taken to chloral. The no-tsew ( fire -water ) of the Chinese sailor is samshu that has

been digested upon tobacco, or perhaps with arsenic besides. The vodki of the Russian peasant is impregnated with datura-seed. In Great Britain tobacco is used upon ale occasionally, but nux vomica less (Parkes). The “ hog-cholera ,” which some years since

prevailed with so destructive effect at our Northwestern distilleries, was attributed to the free use of the nux.

Delirium tremens, so common now and five times over as upon comparison with half a century ago , has also been ascribed to the free

employment of the latter poison. Page 275 , Sec. 31. Absinthe contains 4 g . of the oil in 1000 parts. Induration, then soſtening of the stomach is one effect (Salmon ). Of this together with other liqueurs there was in 1867 an importation into the U . S. of 60,000 gallons, or one-tenth that of the brandy.

Page 282, Sec. 9. Of52 cases at a Reformatory in Moscow , Salva tori reports 28 permanent, and 14 temporary cures; our Retreats at home give returns even more encouraging.

Page 297, Sec. 15. Wine, saith Athenæus, is the “ Pegasus of the Poets.” As a minimum for daily alimentation, Dr. Cheyne's measure is “ 8 oz. of flesh with 12 ofbread , and a pint of wine.” The Pilgrim on leaving Palace Beautiful on his way over Hill Difficulty towards the Delectable Mountains, is providently furnished with “ a loaf, a

bottle of wine, and a cluster of raisins.” Wine as an analeptic cor dial,whether in health or under disease,is certified to by such names

Additional Memoranda.

395 as Boerhaave and Sydenham . Dr. Holyoke of Salem , who led a busy liſe in the continued enjoyment of full vigor even into his worst year, and who was withal a most consistent exemplar of temperance

in the true sense, had for years his every day complement of stout cider made a little stouter with a stronger liquor. Page 303, Sec. 24 . Anstie relates cases of a veritable oinomania generated in disease, as of a child with pleuritis, that subsisted mainly on port-wine, 6 oz. a day, for twelve days, making upon the same a

rapid recovery. Inman , Bird and others give similar instances,

covering weeks perhaps. So at the critical periods as in the event of menopausis, there is likely to arise the same temporary demand (R . Collard). Hippocrates prescribed a zythogala, which was a compound of ale and milk . Certain vices of constitution , as from

scrofula that hereditary taint in the Saxon family, and the scorbutic tendency aswell, are very largely corrected by the liberaluse of simple wines and ales.

Vinous liquors are contraindicated within the period of childhood, and at puberty especially. Among the planters on our Gulf border

there was a common practice, that of giving in themorning a swallow

of raw whiskey all around as a protective against “ the chills.” At Laybach the women gave their infants beer (Lippich ), and in Scot land a similar practice has been a familiar one (Anstie). Page 304, Sec. 27. In experimentations upon alcoholics, results are very much qualified in respect of quantity (Reis ). Parkes found nar cosis begins on exceeding two ounces.

In the physiologic view , Drysdale maintains that alcohol acts as a

simple stimulant, being excreted without change; Dupré and others contend it undergoes oxidation after ingestion ; Bouchardat insists it is further transformed by resolution into certain acids. In the hands of Lallemand and Duroy the chromic-acid test proved simply a quali

tative, but not a quantitative gauge. Boker upon careful review has

perhaps abouthit the truth : “ L'alcool agit en retardant la métamor phose destructive des organes, soulevant sans nourrir et empêchant la dénutrition.” Moleschott calls alcohol “ the sayings-bank of the tis sues."

Digest animal membrane in alcohol, 50 per-cent. of the watery part

is abstracted ; hence it appears how susceptible is the brain in special, which consists of water to 80 per-cent. (Rogers ). Percy years ago

396

a l Additiona Memorand .

observed , that this organ may have becomesurcharged while little of thealcoholabsorbed remains in the circulating fluid . Both sanguineous and serous effusions have been detected by Morgagni and Wepfer.

Page 307, Sec. 30. To associate Bacchus with wine-bibbers and excess is to degrade him from his legitimate place. In Bordeaux, as in other rural districts where wines made and left au naturel are

freely drunk and such only, and by women and children too, sobriety and health are the normal characteristics of the people (Dr. Arnaud). The aristocracy of England, so noted for robustness and longevity, make Haut-Brion and other genuine clarets their habitual drink (Tovey).

At Charenton is heard the current saying, “ On ne devint ivrogne avec le champagne,” — not upon two bottles a day (Tomes). Alcoholism is a term denoting that congeriesof symptoms exhibited in a constitution that has become vitiated through the abuse of alco holics. The prominent index is dipsomania or drink -craving. In the line of causes race should undoubtedly be conceded a conspicuous place. In contrast with the Latin families of S . Europe, the mercurial

Celt as also themore staid Teuton standsat an opposite extreme ( Ivan ).

TheGoths in their revellings passed days together. The Ethiopic tribes are thus prone,and as for our Aborigines, whiskey is to them

both meat and drink. Among the secondary causes of drunkenness, a preponderating pro

portion of the farinacea in the established diet has been assigned ,and

in attestation India with her rice, and Switzerland and the Scandi navian countries with their tough black bread , are appealed to. A less doubtful explanation is indicated in climatic influences. The

guides who toil over the snows and ice-crevices of Chamouni and through latitudes most divergent, keep to water alone (Forbes). The

religieux of St. Bernard declare, that of all the causes of fatality to Alpine tourists, alcoholics have the lead . Dr. Ilayes of the Kane Expedition adverts to the remarkable depression of pulse and reduction of animal heat observed in hyperborean seas. “ In India alcohol

destroys more lives (says Annesley) than famine and the sword to gether.” At Montevideo in 1846 the mortality among the British troops tripled that of the French , — such is the disadvantage from rum as against wine. At the one extreme alcohol determines to the brain ; at the other, to the liver and the kidneys.

Additional Memoranda.

397

In St. Petersburg there is one wine-shop for every 293 inhabitants. The annual average in Sweden is 19 /2 litres per individual. Paris showed a progressive increase in four years from 1851 of 1472 litres.

In France altogether, “ that vineyard ofthe world ,” as Redding calls it, the production for home-use has increased now after twenty-four years,by 37 72 per cent. For London , Coroner Lankester is of opinion

there has been no advance for some years. In Great Britain (but this was twenty years ago ) drunkenness on whiskey as compared with ale is about 4 to 3 (Neison ). In the U . S. the habit if not so

flagrant for excess is certainly now more diffused . Page 307 , Sec. 31. According to Dr. E . McKinley , of every 300

men in the U . S. 122 never drink of alcoholics at all, and 100 not to

intoxication,and 3 are habitual drunkards. The corresponding num bers for every 700 females are, 600, 180, and 3. Upon a calculation on the returns for 1868 as appears, 4.8 gallons is the average formales past 18.

Page 310, Sec. 34 . Ramazzini, etc. Page 313, Sec. 39 . Niantic-Bridge Rendezvous, N . L . Co., Con., 1825 – 30. On the eastern flank of the river and within a neighbor hood of a mile-radius, there were 28 families having the one groggery

for a focus, pertaining to which were to be counted 17 habitualdrunk .

ards, who lived nevertheless to an average age considerably beyond 70 ; but of these there were 3 voluntary and permanent reformations.

Besidesthe seventeen there was an overplusof 7 periodical drunkards, and of the entire number of males arrived at a mature age, 2 only

(the father of the writer for one) were original and confirmed absti

nents. Of sons following in the steps of their fathers there were 6 instances, and 6 exceptions. Page 320,Sec. I. Bang (or Bhang) is the leaf pulverized for pipe. use. At Cairo they have a spirit, the chatsréky (Bouchardat).

Page 321, Sec. 4. Stuze, etc. Page 324, Sec. II. Vide “ Taylor, Lands of the Saracen.” Prof. Polli noted in himself the dualism of consciousness, and an analgesia

under blows from the hand . The latter symptom has long been turned to account in India for the facilitating of circumcision , and

also for another and more radical ablation of organs,by which im

mature boys are fitted for future hårem -service. Page 327, Sec. 14. Baldach or Bagedad, etc. 34

398

a Additional Memorand .

Page 329, Sec. 18. To the ale with the juice of belladonna inter mingled , which the Scots proffered their invaders Sweno and his Danes, is ascribed the disastrous defeat that ensued ( Buchanan ).

Page 331, Sec. I. Tobako, says Humboldt, was originally applied

in San Domingo to the pipe ; the prepared leafbore the name cohiba. Page 335 , Sec. 7. Nicotine reacts upon the heart, arresting the cir

culation directly (Brodie ). The Hottentots by applying a single drop to the tongue of a serpent lay the reptile rigid in death on the instant; for all which the Greenlanders will importune a newly

arrived stranger for a suck from his old clay-pipe (Joubert). Tobacco has caused death , used per rectum (Copland), and as a liniment

(Blanchard). London prostitutes of the viler sort carry about them an aromatized snuff,which they slyly drop into a glass of ale, while decoying their victims. The immediate effect is a semi-stupefaction

with a loss ofmuscular power, lasting long enough for the victimizing process to be completed . Page 341, Sec. 15. Others known to fame were Cromwell, who

smoked even while dictating despatches, Frederick the Great, Ad dison , Swift and Bolingbroke, Canning and Bulwer, Jonson , Fletcher and Shakspeare, who with their compeers used to congregate at the “ Mermaid ,” to the profound disgust of the monarch arrayed “ In quilted doublet and great trunk -breeches, Who held in abhorrence tobacco and witches."

In respect of the Professions, the lawyers incline to the cigar, the

clericals favor the pipe, and the doctors are bold upon either. Page 343,Sec. 20. The chemist Dubrumfaut, etc. Page 345, Sec. 24. On the disastrous retreat from Moscow , while brandy worked badly, tobacco was found a most energizing succor.

The Uhlans, those indomitable grenadiers of the newly -elected em

peror, are daily served with cigars a dozen or more. So in hospital, tobacco seemsto operate as a veritable tranquillizer. A prophylactic virtue inherent in tobacco is evinced in the fact, that of those dealers

who kept open -shop during the Plague of 1665, not one suffered an attack .

Page 354,Sec. 38. Raleigh's pipe was of silver ; Gen. Jackson's favorite was a bowlhollowed out of a corn -cob , with a reed attached for stem .

Additional Memoranda.

399 Page 357, Sec. 42. The natives of Central America combine lime for chewing purposes ( Lieut. Herndon ).

Page 361, Sec. 8. The poet Hanbali styles coffee “ the cordial of the servants of God in their thirst aſter knowledge.” Dr. Hayes makes this note : “ After varied trials, coffee it appeared served bet.

ter in staying thehunger of the men during the day, whereas after a hard day's-work tea by its soothing effect better disposed to sleep." Fontenelle gives his experience: “ If coffee be a poison, as some aver, it is one of the slowest, certainly , for I have been drinking of it now fourscore years, and am alive and hearty yet.”

Page 362, Sec. 10. The prepared leaf, which resembles Congou in flavor, contains a larger percentage of the alkaloid than either the berry or tea proper. The bitterness of coffee when in excess pertainsto

the immature gathering only. The Guarana,a tea-plant of S. America, contains 5 per-cent. of guaranine.

Page 364, Sec. 14. Mad . de Sévigné, a devout ritualist at a most

luxurious court, to help support the prescribed penances of fasting , found her restrictions much more tolerable with the aid of cocoa

for a daily beverage. Page 364, Sec. 15. Of the spurious teas is the “ Moning Congou," made of exhausted leaves in part, which is largely prepared for the

English market (Stenhouse). Copper as a colorant is less used now . Page 369, Sec. 5. Séfi, of the Abbas dynasty, cured perverse trans gressors by pouring molten lead down their throats. Page 381, Sec. 18. Prohibition pushed to the extreme arrays one

class of the community against all the rest. Impure liquors costing little in the manufacture would be sold in spite of all interdictions imposed and penalties impending, and to the immeasurable in jury of the consumer ; but institute a rigid and thorough system of

inspection conducted under the supervision of the chemist and the microscopist, and every sober man and every moderate drinker too would hail the inauguration of such policy. As for penalties, a fine alone is no punishment to a capitalist, but it is a heavy one, falling

not directly so much upon the drunkard himself as in its reaction upon the drunkard 's family . Imprisonment that should involve both the manufacturer, and the sub -dealer besides as a particeps criminis,

would afford at least a measurable safeguard.

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